


Unforeseen Circumstances

by alonesearcher



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: Gen, Pesterlog, Snark, Suspense, Swearing, Time Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-03-14
Packaged: 2017-11-27 06:43:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 33,757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/659044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alonesearcher/pseuds/alonesearcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the scratch memories are fuzzy and everyone is back to square one. I don't own Homestuck- just disclaiming.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Homestuck.

Unforeseen Consequences

Chapter: 1

John’s room was bright, glowing in a soft green hue. He didn’t remember falling asleep. His head felt heavy, and a little bit like he’d been daydreaming for a long period of time. The green light faded as he slowly woke up further, blinking rapidly. He was warm, and very comfortable. How long had he been here? His mind was in a fog. He wasn’t even sure what day it was. Everything was a blur.  
  
The chirp of pesterchum alerted him to someone trying to contact him. He sat up, feeling disoriented. Did he stay up all night watching movies or something? The sound of pesterchum became more persistent, so John stood up to appease the determined chum.  
The room tilted as John lost his balance, his legs giving beneath him dropping him callously on the floor of his room. Before he knew it he was opening his eyes again, feeling more mixed-up than ever. He felt like he’d run a marathon! John sat up, leaning his back against his bed. Where did his bed sheets go?  
There was a serious of rapid beeps, as if one word was being sent over and over. John was busy staring at his legs though. Whose clothes was he wearing? He didn’t own bright blue pajama pants.  
  
He got up more carefully, wandering over to the computer and plunking himself down in the chair unceremoniously. There, small victories. He squinted at the screen, carcinoGeneticist? Who was that? How did they get his chumhandle?

 

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \-- began pestering --ectoBiologist [EB] \--

CG: JOHN!  
CG: GOD DAMN IT.  
CG: FUCKING ANSWER YOU ASSHOLE.  
CG: THE ONE TIME I NEED YOUR GOD DAMN HELP AND YOU’RE GOING TO FUCKING BLOW ME OFF.  
CG: YOU ARE THE WORST FRIEND JOHN EGBERT.  
CG: I HOPE YOU’RE DEAD.  
CG: I HOPE WHATEVER THING HAPPENED KILLED YOU ALL AND SKAIA RID US OF YOU FOR FUCKING EVER YOU GRUB SUCKING BASTARD.  
CG: JOHN…  
CG: LISTEN I’M IN SOME DEEP SHIT HERE. THINGS ARE NOT OK WHERE I AM. I AM DROWNING IN A SEA OF SERIOUS SHIT.  
CG: SOMEHOW THINGS ARE WORSE THEN BEFORE. GAMZEE NEEDS MY HELP, AND I NEED YOURS SO ANSWER AND DON’T BE DEAD YOU FUCKTARD.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
CG: FUCK.  
EB: what is this?  
CG: FUCK YOU. HOLY FUCK!  
CG: WHERE ARE YOU?  
EB: the moon. who is this?  
CG: HAHA JOHN, VERY FUNNY. SERIOUSLY, WHERE ARE YOU?  
EB: how did you get my account?  
CG: WHAT THE ACTUAL GOD DAMN HELL JOHN. I TELL YOU I’M UP TO MY KNEES IN FUCKING HORRORTERROR SHIT OVER HERE AND YOU WANT TO PLAY ONE OF YOUR IDIOTIC NOT FUNNY PRANKS? I’M NOT IN THE MOOD.  
EB: this is the weirdest trolling ever..."  
CG: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  
CG: WE ALL HAD A GOOD LAUGH AT YOUR FUNNY FUCKING JOKE EGBERT. YOU’RE THE GREATEST PRANKSTER WHO EVER LIVED AND WE ALL LICK THE GROUND YOU WALK ON!!!  
EB: woah dude.  
CG: NO JOHN. YOU ARE TRULY THE STUPIDEST BASTARD WHO EVER LIVED. WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE?  
EB: … uh  
CG: I NEED SOME ANSWERS HERE!!!  
EB: ok so you’re probably doing drugs or something. how do you know my name?  
CG: WHAT KIND OF GRUB FUCKING GOD DAMN SHIT IS THIS YOU UGLY SELF ABSORBED SELFISH BASTARD. YOU STINKING WORTHLESS PILE OF LUSUS SHIT WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU EVEN ASSUME FOR ONE FUCKING SECOND THAT THIS IS THE TIME TO… OH FUCK. THEY FOUND ME.  
EB: so then, i’m just gonna go…  
CG: AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!! FUCK!

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \-- ceased pestering --ectoBiologist [EB] \-- 

 

John stared at the computer in utter confusion. What was that? He blocked the troll, just to be safe. None of his other friends were online so he got up, crossing his room to the calendar. It was his birthday? He thought about it hard for a second. That seemed right, didn’t it? Okay, well that was good. It was his birthday, yay! Exciting, he guessed…  
  
He wandered downstairs, for some reason not flinching at the harlequin pictures and figures as he would ritually do on a normal day. For some reason they felt nostalgic to him, maybe because he was older and more mature. More likely because he was tired, or that’s what he told himself. To compensate for his neutral attitude he vowed to come back later and draw mustaches on the photos to appease his trickster’s gambit, and just generally keep his inner child alive.  
  
There was a strong sweet smell wafting from the kitchen. He didn’t have to be a detective to know his dad was making him a birthday cake. Risking a strife encounter he walked in to find about ten cakes piled around the room. His stomach turned in disgust, but when his dad turned around from the oven holding a fresh chocolate abomination he found he wasn’t unhappy to see him. In fact, he was very happy to see him. His dad proudly presented the confection eyesore with thirteen lit candles. John supposed indulging the old man wouldn’t hurt him. Determined to blow them all out he inhaled, held his breath, and then blew.  
  
To his great surprised his dad was thrown backwards into the counter, snapping his head on the cupboard before toppling to the floor, seemingly from the power behind John’s breath! John cried out in astonishment, rushing to his father’s side, fear shooting through him and making his body shake, “dad!”  
  
His dad appeared to be alright. His head had a thin trail of blood trickling from his hair line, but other than that he seemed to be fine. John’s dad did his best to comfort him, assuring John that he was not really hurt. He was more confused about what had happened. John was too. Appearances would suggest that John had huffed and puffed and blown his father down. His dad went around the room looking for a cause, turning off the oven even though he’d been blown the opposite direction. Finally he concluded that he had tripped. John wasn’t convinced, seeing as he’d seemed to gain air. Still, neither of them could find any other reason for what had happened.  
  
John absconded from the kitchen before his dad could concentrate on getting him to eat any of his wicked baked goods. The only logical thing to do now would be to find presents. He slipped out the back door, making his way to the mailbox. He was curious if his friends had sent him anything. He thought he remembered them saying so, but it seemed like so long ago.  
  
Stepping outside had a strange effect on him. He could feel the wind around him. He was so in tune to it. He felt like he’d never been so focused before. He’d never been so aware of the breeze, or the subtle shift in air currents all around him,  
  
He shook his head, trying to snap out of it. Why was he so prone to daydreaming all of a sudden? Maybe being thirteen was killing is brain cells. Or all that cake was.  
  
The mailbox was filled with coupons for shaving cream and cake, and a birthday card from his nana. How was that possible? His grandmother had passed away in some mysterious manner that his dad didn’t like to talk about. He wondered if seeing the card would just upset his dad. He decided to open it in his room, away from his dad and his sugary projects.  
  
John raced upstairs through the front door so he wouldn’t have to go in the kitchen again. His pesterchum was beeping. He probably shouldn’t leave that online when he wasn’t there. It looked like Dave was trying to get ahold of him.

 

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] -– began pestering -- ectoBiologist [EB]\--

TG: egbert  
TG: im going crazy man  
TG: this day is important somehow  
TG: i just cant seem to remember why  
TG: aw man  
TG: is it mlk day  
TG: for real dude  
TG: i hate myself if i forgot mlk day  
TG: what kind of douche doesnt remember such an important man and all he did for the world  
TG: its comparable to forgetting your best bros bday or some shit like that  
TG: frickin unforgivable dude  
TG: i should stab myself like a god damned shamed japanese warrior or some shit  
EB: aw man no.  
EB: how will the world keep turning without your mad beats and cool face?  
TG: its a god damn mystery man  
TG: like  
TG: a federal fucking case  
EB: hell yea man, totally.  
TG: so what have you been doing on this not important day then  
TG: besides dodging cake i mean  
EB: you have no idea  
EB: he must think I have ten birthdays today  
TG: get any sweet loot  
EB: no man, just a card from nana. Hey do you believe in ghosts?  
TG: …  
TG: what  
EB: i mean my nana died when I was young so I was wondering how she sent me a bday card  
TG: no way man i am not having this conversation again  
EB: what?  
TG: we already talked about this and it was god awful  
TG: fucking horrible  
TG: i am sick and tired of all this fucking deja vu up in here  
TG: if I have to live one more god damned experience again im going to throw myself off a cliff  
TG: im going to go out into this fucking city  
TG: find a god damn cliff and dive off it with a stupid smile on my face like I was high  
TG: because thats how happy I would be to end this fucking stupid nightmare  
EB: woah dude, what the hell are you talking about  
EB: I just got the letter  
EB: this is the first time I’ve talked about it with you, or anybody.  
TG: fuck this shit

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] \-- ceased pestering -- ectoBiologist [EB]\--

 

John looked at the screen confused, rereading the pesterlog and scratching his head. What happened? Maybe Dave was on drugs. That wasn’t like him. Maybe there was some weird virus going around that is transferable by pesterchum? Everyone he had talked to today seemed to be crazy! Oh wait. Maybe this was some elaborate prank on him! Like a birthday prank? Aw man, if that were true his friends would be so cool!

 

\-- ectoBiologist [EB ]\-- began pestering -- turntechGodhead [TG]\--

EB: oh man, that was so funny!  
EB: you’re hilarious Dave  
EB: you really got me!

\-- ectoBiologist [EB ]\-- ceased pestering -- turntechGodhead [TG] \--

 

Even if it was a joke Dave still seemed kind of weird. Maybe Rose could get around to giving him some good friend therapy. She always knows how to get whatever is bugging him out of him. He can really dodge a question if he doesn’t want to answer, but Rose knew how to trick him into revealing it. Just then she came online. Lucky!

 

\-- ectoBiologist [EB]\-- began pestering -- tentacleTherapist [TT] \--

EB: hey rose!  
TT: Hello John, happy birthday.  
EB: thanks! you have good timing!  
TT: What do you mean?  
EB: i just talked with Dave and he was acting really weird. i was hoping you could see if you could cheer him up or something.  
TT: Hmm.  
EB: oh sorry, you don’t want to?  
TT: It’s not that, it is just I had a sensation that you desired to speak to me regarding Dave.  
EB: oh really? did i say something before, or maybe he said something strange?  
TT: Not at all. You are the first individual I spoke to today. I was endeavoring to reach Jade, but she has alluded me so far.  
EB: i see. are you alright?  
TT: I am not unwell. I believe my mom tried to garb me as a wizard when I was sleeping however. This was a truly remarkable feat on her part, and I’m not sure in what way to top it.  
EB: she changed your clothes while you were sleeping?  
TT: It would appear to be so, though she reputed it when confronted.  
EB: haha, your mom is so weird.  
TT: I’m inclined to agree with you. Has your dad assaulted you with baked goodies yet?  
EB: i managed to avoid a strife encounter by blowing the candles out and blowing him into the counter!  
TT: I’m sorry, are you implying that when you went to blow out your candles, you subsequently blew your dad over as well?  
EB: haha, yea! well, not really. i mean i don’t know what happened. he thinks he just tripped.  
TT: Rather impressive lungs for a thirteen year old.  
EB: i know right?  
TT: I have a query for you.  
EB: what’s up?  
TT: What was your impression when you awoke this morning?  
EB: when i woke up? i don’t know. everything’s kind of a blur really. why? did i say something strange to you last night?  
TT: No, you did nothing erroneous whatsoever.  
EB: gosh everyone is acting so strangely  
TT: Then I apologize for my suspicious behavior. I did not intend to be anything short of my typically amiable person.  
EB: no, it’s fine. this is just turning into a very strange birthday.  
TT: I will speak with you more on this later. Jade is online and it is best I talk to her now. Have a good birthday John.  
EB: sure…

\-- tentacleTherapist [TT] \-- ceased pestering -- ectoBiologist [EB] \--

 

Alright, well Rose seemed mostly normal. Things were looking up! Rose’s mom sure was weird though. Come to think of it he was wearing weird pajamas too. Could his dad have put them on him as a weird prank? Or perhaps a birthday present. Either way he’d ask later. He hoped he got a chance to talk to Jade too before she went offline. Oh, there was Dave again. John decided that he would get to the bottom of his weird behavior.

 

\--ectoBiologist [EB]\-- began pestering -- turntechGodhead [TG] \--

EB: dave why are you acting like a crazy person? is this a weird prank?  
TG: what  
TG: no man  
TG: unlike you i am a higher life form  
TG: pranks are beneath me  
TG: theyre so far beneath me that china is having a surplus of pranks  
TG: theyre all confused wondering where these pranks came from  
TG: pranks are the opposite god damn polarization of me  
TG: i repel those fuckers like a magnet  
EB: that is some serious repelling power there dave.  
TG: everything about me is serious  
TG: im a stoic god  
EB: so you don’t want to talk about the letter?  
TG: hell yes i want to talk about this letter  
TG: im all about this god damn letter  
EB: alright then. so… you believe in ghosts?  
TG: no man  
TG: ghost are for little kids  
TG: to scare them into doing what their parents want  
TG: but yea you might be haunted  
EB: whatever man. i just can’t figure out how my nana would have planned this  
EB: does the post office really hold letters for that long? why would she want to send me a letter on my thirteenth birthday?  
TG: woah man  
TG: from your grandmother who died  
TG: shit got real  
EB: i know dude!  
TG: well dont leave me hanging  
TG: like a fucking yoyo over here  
TG: what does it say  
EB: what does it say? i don’t know, i haven’t read it yet  
TG: why the fuck not  
EB: i got distracted! hold on a second.  
EB: …  
EB: it’s weird.  
EB: she says none of this is real. that’s all it says. weird…  
TG: what  
TG: the  
TG: fuck  
TG: goddamn it egbert  
TG: this is a stupid fucking prank  
TG: pretty goddamn lame really  
EB: no dave, it’s not a prank… or at least i don’t think it is  
EB: maybe she’s saying something like, life or some shit?  
EB: i don’t know man  
TG: yea whatever  
TG: i got shit to deal with here so  
TG: later

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] \-- ceased pestering -- ectoBiologist [EB]\--

 

Well that didn’t go much better than the first conversation. He wondered what was going on with Dave. He seemed to be going through something. He kind of cut the conversation short before John could properly defend himself. Well maybe third time would be the charm. He’d try again later.  
John looked at the card from his nana. It was a plain card with the number 14 printed big on the front. John frowned, maybe he wasn’t meant to figure out this mystery until next year? Or maybe he should show his dad after all, even if it might upset him. At least then he’d know what it meant. It was like one of the weird notes his dad would leave around the house for him to discover through each step of his increasing manliness. He wished he could just ask his nana. She’d probably laugh and tell him he needed to figure it out on his own. Or… wait. No, that’s not right. He wouldn’t know because he never met her. Well maybe he heard she was like that from his dad.

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] \-- began pestering -- ectoBiologist [EB] \--

GG: hi john!!!! :D  
EB: hey jade :)  
GG: happy birthday to you!!  
EB: oh yeah, hey thanks.  
GG: of course :)  
GG: are you having a fun birthday today?  
EB: yeah i guess. my dad made a million cakes and i got a card from my dead nana.  
GG: from your dead grandmother, how is that possible?  
EB: i’m not too clear on the details.  
EB: best guess i have is ghostly interference, though i think i got it a year too early.  
GG: hmm : /  
GG: that is very interesting!!  
EB: i know. i’m considering indulging in a little ghostbusters just to be safe.  
GG: tee hee :)  
EB: anyway did you talk to rose?  
GG: i did, though i don’t think i was much help to her  
GG: i’m actually pretty confused about a few things myself!  
EB: what things?  
GG: well…  
GG: i don’t know how to explain it  
GG: but my dreams have been very strange lately  
GG: they’re not how they’re supposed to be!!  
GG: it’s very troubling to me : /  
EB: aw man, that sucks  
GG: it does suck! have any strange things been happening to you lately john?  
EB: besides cards from my deceased relatives not really. well, nothing like weird dreams anyway.  
GG: i see…  
EB: you might want to ask dave though, he seems to be going through some shit. he keeps snapping at me in a very unironic and uncool way.  
GG: !!!!!!!!!  
EB: i know, it’s out of character.  
GG: that is suprising  
GG: i’ll have to ask him about it  
EB: maybe you can make some sense out of it. though probably it’s just his bro stressing him out. i don’t know how he can sleep at night being stared at by all those puppets.  
GG: it’s a mystery! :D  
GG: anyway john i have to go check on bec, who is also acting very strange today!!!  
EB: okay, talk to you later  
GG: :D

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] \-- ceased pestering -- ectoBiologist [EB] \--

 

Poor Jade was having bad dreams? Everyone was having a hard day it seemed. Even her weird dog!  
  
John leaned back in his chair, looking at his friend’s pesterchums all flick offline. He stood, stretching his aching muscles. It very strange, the only birthday gift he got was from his grandmother. None of his friends had mentioned presents, and it wasn’t like he needed gifts, but he thought he remembered them talking about getting him something before. If he thought about it too hard he realized a lot of strange things were happening. It made his head hurt to think about it. He opened his window to get some fresh air, feeling his skin tingle as a cool breeze rushed in. He wanted to wrap the air around him to relieve his headache. First there was the troll who seemed to know about him, then blowing his dad over, the card from his nana, and his friend’s odd behavior. Did it have anything in common? Not that he could think of. He felt so anxious. Like he shouldn’t just be sitting around, but doing something. He didn’t know what though.  
The wind smelled so familiar. He took a deep breath. Where had he smelled this scent before? It was such a strong scent. Wait… oh god.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter: 2

 

Karkat could hear the whispers in the trees. His ears picked up the footsteps snapping branches in their race to locate him. He darted as fast as he could between the foliage, trying to conceal his presence while putting distance between himself and his pursuers. They were fast, but they had not had his experience in the area, and they didn’t have his speed.

The power they had gained from playing the game had not left them. He could feel his own potential under his skin, but he could not kill these trolls. His only option for now was to flee. His hive was being watched. He couldn’t go back there, not even to seek shelter with his lusus. It would most likely just get culled again protecting him. He didn’t know which of his friends he could trust, or even if they would be able to hide him if they were on his side.

He had one idea though. He just hoped he wouldn’t be culled in the process. He doubled back the way he came, hiding behind the trees to avoid the determined trackers. Once he was sure they’d passed him by he ran as fast as he could toward the direction of his hive. He didn’t go there though. Instead he circled around and made his way to Gamzee’s hive. His morail wasn’t home because he was in captivity, but he doubted Gamzee would care if he used his computer. Here was hoping Gamzee’s lusus wouldn’t cull him for intruding. It was hard to tell with that thing. If luck was on his side the thing would be out at sea until Karkat could think of somewhere better to hide.

He entered the hive without incident, groaning out loud as he entered Gamzee’s bedroom. It was exactly as he pictured it would be. Where did he get all this faygo? And there were so many horns everywhere. Why did he need so many horns? And there was a unicycle? He didn’t remember ever seeing Gamzee ride a unicycle. Still, he was so worried about him. He wished he could get to him somehow.

He pushed the thoughts aside fiercely, determined not to dwell on it. He was doing what he could right now. Gamzee wasn’t the only one in trouble. He plopped down at Gamzee’s computer, angrily pushing all his odds and ends onto the floor, a half full bottle of faygo emptying onto the ground and soaking his strewn about clothes. Karkat ignored this, logging out of Gamzee’s chumhandle and entering his own. A message from John was waiting that he had sent about an hour before. He was so angry at Egbert and his stupid joke he almost deleted it.

 

\--ectoBiologist [EB] \--began pestering -- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \--

EB: karkat!  
EB: karkat i remember now.  
EB: i really didn’t remember before, but now i do!  
EB: what’s happening to you, and your friends? where are you? i’m on earth, and so are jade, dave, and rose!  
EB: they don’t remember either, and i haven’t been able to talk to them since my memory came back. i don’t understand how we got here, or how our memories have been altered.  
EB: i think nanasprite tried to tell me in her own weird way.  
EB: i’m sorry karkat.  
EB: please be ok.  
EB: i’m going to try to fix this…

\--ectoBiologist [EB] \--ceased pestering -- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \--

\-- carcinoGeneticist  [CG] \-- began pestering --ectoBiologist  [EB] \--

CG: JOHN?!  
CG: YOU FUCKIN NOOKSTAIN DON’T DO ANYTHING!!!  
CG: YOU’RE JUST GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED! LET ME HANDLE THIS FOR NOW. WE DON’T KNOW WHY THIS HAPPENED YET!!!  
CG: AND I DON’T KNOW WHY YOUR STUPID THINK CANS WERE ERASED AND NOT OURS, THOUGH THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A WHOLE LOT FUCKING BETTER THEN THIS. TEREZI TOOK GAMZEE INTO CUSTODY BECAUSE OF HIS MURDERING EQUIUS AND NEPETA, EVEN THOUGH HERE THEY’RE ALIVE AGAIN! ERIDAN THAT FUCKASS GOD DAMNED BASTARD HAS HALF THE TROLLS ON ALTERNIA LOOKING FOR MY ASS!!! BUT YOU DON’T SEE HIM GETTING TAKEN INTO CUSTODY! GAMZEE’S FUCKING BETTER THEN ERIDAN ANY DAY!!! I DON’T KNOW WHAT HE IS DOING BECAUSE HE COULD PROBABLY ESCAPE IF HE FUCKING FELT LIKE IT!!! I DON’T GET WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!!! AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF I NOW HAVE TO DEAL WITH YOU RUNNING OFF LIKE A RETARD TO MOST LIKELY GET YOURSELF KILLED!!!  
CG: GODDAMN IT EGBERT!!!  
CG: THIS IS A GREAT FUCKING PILE OF LUSUS SHIT AND I’M GOING TO GET CULLED TRYING TO HELP YOU? FUCK THAT SHIT!!!  
CG: SIT STILL IN YOUR HIVE UNTIL I CONTACT YOU AGAIN!!!  
CG: DON’T LEAVE!!!

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \-- ceased pestering --ectoBiologist [EB] \--

Rose woke up feeling as if she were being subjected to a hangover. Her room was dark, but that was the copious curtains she kept over her windows. Her pesterchum was discontinuously chirping, adding to her headache. Something in her told her that she needed to answer the chum soon, but her head was throbbing. She looked at the clock on her nightstand, 11 am? It was unlike her to sleep so late. She felt sore as she sat up, her muscles protesting. She almost felt like she had been beaten up.

She swung her legs off the bed, startled by the orange outfit she was wearing. What was this? It was not anything she owned, she was sure of that. She stood, surprised at the pain in her legs. What had she done yesterday, went running? She couldn’t remember. Everything was fuzzy in her head. The only clear thought she had was how important it was to get on pesterchum. What a strange thought, it was drumming in her head, beating on her skull with a harsh insistence. What was wrong with her?

Rose caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. What was this, wizard garb? This was definitely her mother’s doing. She was sure of it. How had she done this without waking her up? The possibilities were disconcerting. She put it out of her mind for now, making her way to the computer, flinching at the way her muscles tightened and spasm with each step. She sat at the computer, seeing John was online. A reminder note on her computer suggested it was John’s birthday. She felt the strong desire to message him. She could feel something pushing her from inside. She’d never had such strange sensations. It was like she was seeing flashes, pictures of her friends and her. She wondered if this was similar to Jade’s experiences. She desperately wanted to ask her. First she messaged John, who seemed to be having an odd day to say the least. It sent shivers up her spine at how much of the conversation she felt she already knew. Then she noticed a message left for her by Dave. Unfortunately he had logged off. She wanted to talk to Jade first though, before she fell asleep or something. She had just appeared online.

\-- tentacleTherapist  [TT] \-- began pestering -- gardenGnostic  [GG]  \--

TT: Jade, it is essential for me to speak with you.  
GG: rose!!! :D  
TT: Yes, I am all sorts of excited to speak with you as well. My heart is bursting with barely repressed joy. :)  
GG: tee hee!!! :D  
GG: what did you need to talk to me about rose?  
TT: I had an inquiry regarding your vague but frighteningly accurate forecasting. You have always been elusive with providing me details; however I have been experiencing some unusual activities and am in desperate need of reassurance.  
GG: what sort of activities? i’m very curious now!!!  
TT: I have been experiencing frighteningly accurate forecasting. I was wondering if it was a projection of my psyche confusing me, or if perhaps it was similar to your experiences in conjecturing.  
GG: really!!! that is surprising  
GG: have you been seeing things in your dreams!!! please tell me!!!  
TT: No.  
TT: These are waking visions that plague me, though I surmise from your post that your future information comes when you are sleeping. Then they are not the same. Perhaps they mean nothing after all.  
GG: i doubt that very much!  
GG: maybe it is all true  
GG: strange things have been happening to me as well, and they have been frightening and confusing  
GG: ever since i woke up today!  
TT: Though I have only been awake a short period of time I’m experiencing an off day as well. For example my mother has escalated her antics to shockingly direct levels of confrontation, while still managing to be passive aggressive. I admit a begrudging respect.  
GG: that sounds impressive!  
TT: It is. Have you said happy birthday to John yet?  
GG: oh no! i can’t believe i forgot! D:  
TT: I wouldn’t worry about it too much. He seems to be having quite the day.  
GG: i’m going to tell him right now!!! X(  
TT: Alright then.

\-- gardenGnostic  [GG] \--ceased pestering -- tentacleTherapist  [TT]  \--

Poor Jade, she seemed to be less aware of everything than usual. It was actually almost disappointing to find she didn’t have real knowledge of the future like Jade, while also discouraging that Jade didn’t provide the answer she had come to expect from her. It occurred to Rose that she had received a certain level of comfort from Jade’s clairvoyance abilities. Her head was still throbbing though. Pictures and soft voices were whispering to her, urging her to do things while she tried to push them away, the resulting headache being unparalleled. She listened to their urging, but not because of they told her too, but because she wanted to. She checked the message Strider had left for her some time ago, the message cryptic and a bit worrisome. What had happened to him and what was he talking about?

 

\-- turntechGodhead  [TG] \-- began pestering -- tentacleTherapist [TT] \--

TG: oh god damn it rose  
TG: i cant get to you at any other time  
TG: i dont know how this fucking computer works  
TG: this shit is stupid with buttons and levers  
TG: its like nasa set up a god damn base here  
TG: place is egberts fucking wet dream  
TG: hed orgasm at this set up  
TG: do you have any idea what ive been through to reach this place  
TG: at this point in time  
TG: and now youre off doing god knows what  
TG: playing mind games with your mom or something  
TG: being sugary sweet to her with your best fake smile  
TG: your bloody dagger glimmering in the flickering candle light behind your back  
TG: waiting for the perfect moment when her guard is down  
TG: and shes vacuuming the roof or some shit like that  
TG: and youre not on pesterchum  
TG: helping your friend complete his fucking mission  
TG: this is a sad showing lalonde  
TG: anyway youre getting off topic  
TG: stop your female gossiping and memorize this fucking important message  
TG: do not under any circumstances  
TG: steal that kids game  
TG: or were all going to fucking die

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] \-- ceased pestering -- tentacleTherapist  [TT] \--

Jade woke up that morning at six a.m. This was not unusual for her. She was used to waking up at many different hours and in many different places. This was alright, since Bec would never let anything bad happen to her. This time she woke up in the early dawn, warm in her bed. Her head felt fuzzy, but this was not unusual. She sat up, feeling her muscles were tender. Did she fall from somewhere when she lost consciousness?

She crawled out from under the covers, surprised to see a pair of pajamas that she didn’t remember wearing. She looked at her hands, frightened when none of her colorful reminders were tied around her fingers. They were always there! She would never have taken them off! How would she remember what she dreamed about? There was so much to keep track of!

She thought for a moment, trying to recall her dream. She didn’t remember! She couldn’t recall Prospit, her friends, or anything about Skaia and the clouds, nothing!

Jade started freaking out just a little bit then. As far as she could remember she had awakened on Propit. What had happened to her?

She scampered off the bed, tripping over the pain she wasn’t expecting and landing face first on the floor. Ow, that had hurt. She turned around to look at her legs, half expecting them to be tangled in the blanket. They ached so badly! She resisted the urge to cry, shaking her head vigorously. She would just calm down and not flip out. There was a perfectly reasonable explanation. First she would go feed Bec. Then she would talk with her friends and see where they were and what they knew. That way she could figure out where she was and reassemble her reminders. Everything would be fine… and she most certainly did not have any moisture in her eyes. All her friends on Prospit were going to be okay.

Jade made a quick steak for Bec and rushed to the transporter. Her sylladex was packed with unusual things, mainly frogs. She resolved to figure it out later, and just put the steak in next to them. Before she got all the way downstairs she took out her trusty rifle. Wait… this wasn’t her rifle. This rifle was a lot fancier and different then hers was. It looked like something from science fiction almost. Where had it come from? What was going on?

She gripped it tightly, wondering what to do. She would sort it all out, somehow. The rifle had come into her possession for a purpose. If she had placed it in her strife specibus she could only assume that there was a good motive. She would use it unless she found a reason not to.

That aside this awesome rifle would keep her grandfather satisfied for sure!

She carried it with her as she jogged down the steps after taking the transporter as far as it would go. Even though the inconvenience of his trophies and collections had always really annoyed her, Jade kind of felt relieved to have a sense of normalcy. The pictures of her grandfather’s beauties and the twenty suits of armor didn’t exasperate her, but instead they made her feel a bit sentimental. Jade intended to rush past her grandfather and his friends in the foyer, but stopped for a minute to show off her new rifle instead. He was of course not impressed. A world renowned traveler like himself wouldn’t be mesmerized with just any gun of course. Jade didn’t know if he’d really seen a gun like hers before, but her grandfather would never admit a gun was better than the one he carried.

She went outside to look for her beloved friend. Everything smelled so crisp and sharp today! She was able to smell everything really well. Jade took a deep breath. Bec would show up pretty soon, she imagined he was hungry! She walked around for a while without seeing him, and only after circling the island twice did she get worried. Bec didn’t always show up when she called, but it was rare for him to go far, and she really had wanted to see him. Feeling a little heavy hearted she returned to her bedroom. This day was starting to feel depressing. She wanted to talk to her friends, because then she’d feel better for sure. She cuddled into her pile of squiddles as much as she could, turning on the lunchtop computer and logging into her account.

John and Rose were both online! Her spirits lifted immediately. Before she could even pester one of them Rose started a conversation with her. Rose seemed to be being tortured with visions. At first Jade thought that somehow Rose had woken up and seen the clouds like she had, but it wasn’t so. Jade felt sad, because if Rose had seen something like that then it would mean that Prospit and her friends were alright. Still, she felt bad that she couldn’t be more of a comfort to Rose. To top it all off she hadn’t realized that it was John’s birthday! She quickly started pestering him, glad to find him in a good mood. It seemed like strange things were happening to him as well, mostly letters from dearly departed ones but still, at least she wasn’t the only one having an off day. And John claimed that Dave was acting bizarre also. It was all a big mystery! She noticed Dave pop up on her pesterchum.

\-- gardenGnostic [GG] \-- began pestering -- turntechGodhead  [TG] \--

GG: eeek!! it’s dave strider! XD   
TG: woah calm down   
TG: don’t be all up in my grill   
TG: i got enough problems with rose being all over me without you prostrating at me feet   
TG: not to mention egbert   
TG: a man can only catch so many falling dames   
TG: i only have two arms jade   
TG: and one of them is holding a fucking sword   
GG: i think you can handle it dave!!! :D   
TG: well yeah   
TG: that goes without saying   
TG: im a god damn ninja and all   
TG: be catching chicks left and right   
TG: falling bitches from the sky   
TG: what can a guy do   
GG: the situation is out of your hands really ;)   
TG: exactly jade   
TG: exactly   
TG: so what is going on with you   
GG: i have had a crazy day!!! i’m more than a little confused. but i feel better after talking to everyone   
TG: well take it from someone who has the inside scoop   
TG: im betting its all going to turn out fine   
GG: that is good to hear really…   
GG: usually i’m the one with the inside scoop!!! it’s kind of nice to hear someone else say that the future looks good :)   
TG: haha yeah   
TG: well i have to go now jade   
TG: important business to attend to and all   
TG: im a busy guy you know   
GG: oh i know!!! so many damsels to catch! :D   
TG: yes   
TG: but dont worry youre not going crazy or anything like that   
TG: youll figure everything out soon enough   
TG: but yeah gotta go jade   
TG: bye   
GG: bye dave!!! :D

\-- turntechGodhead [TG] \-- ceased pestering --gardenGnostic [GG] \--

Dave’s words really did make her feel better. Waking up in clothes she didn’t remember, with items she didn’t recall, and of course the lack of dreaming all had her doubting her sanity just a little.

She closed pesterchum, wishing she could just find Bec. Then she would start to feel sane and normal again. She crawled out of the squiddles, going over to the wardrobe to take a look at her mysterious new pajamas. Jade opened the cupboard door and looked at the mirror.

On top of her head, protruding from under her black mane of hair was two fluffy dog ears. Jade resisted the urge to scream as the blood visibly drained from her face. Gingerly she raised her hands, watching herself in the mirror as she touched the warm soft ears. She jerked her hands away, slapping her hands over her mouth. She had dog ears, and a dog nose! That’s why she’d smelled everything all day! Oh god, she was crazy. She must have lost her mind. She wasn’t dreaming of Prospit, and she was hoarding frogs. She had lost her mind!

Dave woke up feeling surprisingly un-alert. Considering how his roommate was he had learned to sleep with one eye open, just on instinct. But today he felt groggy and confused, like someone had knocked him out with a swift blow to his head. He lay in bed a moment, reluctant to move. He was warm, and still. It felt strange to have his guard down, if only for a minute. Somehow being in a constant state of stress and alertness had become the norm for him. He sighed, his thoughts sounded dumb. He got up, rolling out of bed and into a standing position. He felt his muscles ache, but this was a very typical feeling to him. His nerves were always on edge, his muscles always tight, but this was a normal state of being for someone who could be assaulted by puppets around any corner.

He looked around his room, feeling like it had been awhile since he had looked at it. Everything seemed in order, but something wasn’t right. What happened yesterday? He tried to think hard about it, but nothing but a few obscure blurry images flickered in his brain. Had his brother kicked his teeth in or what? He glanced at pesterchum, still online on his computer. No one had bothered to contact him yet, though it was still early for most of them. His rumbling stomach insisted that he scour his closet for something edible. It wouldn’t be the worst thing for him if there was an apocalypse, because he had a lot of canned goods. Without a fridge to store things in he mostly had things that didn’t expire. He grabbed a can of apple juice and chugged it, plopping down in his computer chair. In the reflection of his computer he noticed he was wearing red shirt he didn’t recognize.

He pulled the clothes away from his body to examine it better. Where had these come from? Dave wondered if his brother had knocked him out to play dress up for some ironic purpose. He frowned at his image in the monitor. He really didn’t get it.

Suddenly and violently Dave felt his body heat up. He felt adrenaline shoot through him like fire. His insides were quaking and it felt like the room shifted around him. For a moment he felt like he was standing in a warm river, then he was back sitting in his computer chair in his room. What was that? Did he have a stroke? He let loose the breath he had been holding. His body quivered as the apple juice churned in his stomach. That was weird. He looked around the room, yup, his brother wasn’t around. Guess it was nothing.  He felt alright, though maybe a little disoriented. The room seemed so much brighter now. He glanced at pesterchum. John was online. He hadn’t heard pesterchum’s alert, but whatever. He blinked, John had messaged him without him noticing, seeing, or hearing it. That was weird. He read the message. John accused him of a prank. What prank? He’d just gotten up, it was only… ok the clock said it was a little later then he’d thought it had said earlier. Still, he hadn’t even had time to shower. Give a guy a break.

After chatting with John for a while he wandered into the kitchen, being vigilant in case of an attack. John had kind of annoyed him with his joke about his grandmother, but Dave knew he wouldn’t be annoyed for long. He didn’t see his brother or Lil Cal anywhere. He was probably off on one of his awesome errands then. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder what was up with the costume. Maybe he should go into his brother’s area and see if there was a comic or something left for him explaining the irony behind it. He wandered into his brother’s living space only to find that his brother had mysteriously appeared there, and had turned on a video game. He glanced over at Dave, giving him a thumbs-up, before returning to his Xbox. Dave shrugged, bemused by his brother’s mysterious ways. Would his mind games never end? Still, he was undeniably, inexcusably cool.

Dave returned the gesture, heading back towards his room. He closed the door behind him, wondering if it would be uncool to ask his brother about his new duds. Then the sensation hit him again, the odd heat in his body, and the feeling of things shifting around him. He steadied himself on the wall, waiting for the sensation to pass. What was going on? Was he sick? God he did not want to have to go to the hospital. His brother would take him to the vet or something he was sure of it.

He glanced at the clock habitually, and surprised to see that it was back to the original time he thought he’d seen when he first woke up. Had he just been confused?

Dave decided he was merely dehydrated, or had been poisoned by the seemingly innocent can of apple juice. He walked back out to the kitchen to get a glass of water, glancing over to see how his brother’s game was going. It wasn’t even on though. Guess he died or something. His bro wasn’t around anymore. What was he up to? Dave shrugged it off, fetching his water and going back to his room. He turned around and his brother was there again, playing the game, “uh, hey.”

His brother gave him a thumbs-up. He returned the gesture, feeling like he was being messed with in a weird way. He sought shelter in his bedroom again, hoping to avoid the crazy. Then the sensation swept over him again. He cursed, trying to reach his hand out to catch himself on the desk but missing, tumbling to the floor. Alright, this was probably something he should stop ignoring. Groaning he stumbled out of his room again, “hey bro, I think there is something wrong with me.”

Only his brother wasn’t there. Dave looked around, sighing and wondering if banging his head against the wall would be uncool. He walked into the kitchen then walked out, and as expected his brother was on the couch. He when he heard Dave he repeated the thumbs-up gesture. Dave gave him one back, “so yeah there might be something wrong with me.”

“What exactly?”

“I don’t know. I keep getting dizzy and almost passing out.”

“You just got up. You’re probably just hungry.”

“I’ve been up for a few hours.”

His brother stared at him a moment, “are you wearing a cape?”

Dave didn’t know why he thought this would be a good idea, “yes.” Without waiting for anything else he retreated once more, determined to die on his floor rather than seek help. His brother was obviously in a weird mood, and wouldn’t be of any assistance in keeping him alive.

He sat at his computer in case he felt dizzy again, so this time he wouldn’t fall on the floor. He checked on his comic to see if he had any new messages. He didn’t, but he was supposed to put a new one out soon. He checked the date on his computer and was surprised to see it was John’s birthday. Oh man, come to think of it the letter he was ranting about getting was a birthday card! Shoot, guess he better message him happy birthday. He just needed to tell him in a roundabout cool way. He chatted with John for a while before he brought up the letter again and Dave absconded. Déjà vu was starting to tick him off. And if that wasn’t bad enough his clock was being bipolar and informing him that he was right back where he started when he’d first woken up. He really needed to get this morning over with.

Dave clenched his fist as another odd feeling hit him.  He recovered quicker this time, annoyed with whatever was happening.

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \-- began pestering -- turntechGodhead [TG] \--

CG: FINALLY ONE OF YOU FUCKSASSES COMES ONLINE!!!  
TG: hey wassup  
CG: BUT GOD DAMN IT, WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE YOU?  
TG: burn  
CG: FUCK, DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO I AM?  
TG: no  
CG: FUCK!!!  
TG: reading fuck over and over is a stimulating read  
TG: thank you  
CG: SO YOU WERE A FUCKING DOUCHE BEFORE I MET YOU, GOOD TO KNOW.  
TG: so we havent met then  
TG: i feel empty for the loss of you  
CG: OH MY FUCKING  
CG: NO STOP DISTRACTING ME!!! HAVE YOU SPOKEN WITH JOHN?  
TG: ah man  
TG: no  
TG: this is a another prank by john  
TG: this shit is getting stupid  
CG: I THOUGHT THE SAME FUCKING THING. JUST FUCKING ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION YOU FUCKASS.  
TG: nope  
CG: …  
CG: NO YOU HAVEN’T SPOKEN TO HIM OR NO YOU WON’T ANSWER THE QUESTION?  
TG: i dont even know  
TG: its fucking groundhogs day all over again and again  
TG: only this time it isnt John making me watch a shitty movie but my own brain playing tricks  
TG: i talked to him a few times  
TG: but it might have been the same time  
TG: i probably just have to talk to him until i get it right  
CG: GOD DAMN IT DAVE, STOP PRATTLING ON IN YOUR FUCKING STUPID WAY. I TOLD JOHN NOT TO LEAVE HIS HIVE AND NOW HE WON’T ANSWER.  
TG: john has a listening problem  
TG: i told him to stop watching shitty movies  
TG: in one ear and out the other god damn ear  
CG: YOU’RE ALL IN DANGER IDIOT. SO SHUT YOUR FUCKING HOLE!  
TG: oh no  
CG: THE WORLDS WE’RE IN ARE NOT STABLE, OR REAL. I NEED TO TELL FUCKING EGBERT BEFORE HE DESTABILIZES IT AND KILLS YOU ALL. AND PROBABLY ME AND MY FRIENDS TOO, THE ONES I ACTUALLY GIVE A FUCK ABOUT.  
TG: ill tell him the moment i see him  
TG: my word as a gentleman  
CG: THIS IS POINTLESS.IF JOHN CONTACTS YOU AGAIN TELL HIM TO STOP JUMPING AROUND AND TO CONTACT ME.  
TG: for you  
TG: no  
CG: FUCK YOU STRIDER. FUCK YOU AND YOUR FUCKING POSING AND YOUR SELF ABSORBED FUCKING IRONIC ATTITUDE.  
TG: youre hurting my feelings  
TG: im going to go cry into my pillow like a god damn chick now  
TG: like i was left on prom night by my date  
TG: who id had a crush on the whole fucking term  
TG: and spent weeks getting the courage to ask out after third period science  
CG: HEY STRIDER.  
CG: I BET YOU AND ARADIA ARE HAVING THE SAME PROBLEMS CONTROLLING YOUR TEMPORAL POWERS.  
TG: no  
TG: but my control of sick fires seems to be on the fritz  
TG: help  
CG: ARADIA SKIPPED RANDOMLY THROUGH THE ALPHA TIMELINE WITHOUT CONTROL OR EVEN REAL AWARENESS OF WHAT WAS HAPPENING TO HER UNTIL RECENTLY.  
TG: as have i  
TG: ive been traversing history  
TG: i stopped the movie armageddon and assassinated mcconaughey  
TG: hold on i have to go destroy nicolas cages career  
CG: FUCKING HILARIOUS. DON’T ACCUMULATE TOO MANY DEAD DAVES. THIS CONVERSATION HAS DEPLETED MY THINK PAN IRREVERSIBLY SO I WILL WAIT UNTIL SOMEONE WHO ISN’T YOU COMES ONLINE. IF I CAN I WILL LEAVE YOU TO DIE ASSHOLE.  
TG: dont go  
TG: lets talk about more nonsense

 -- carcinoGeneticist  [CG] \-- ceased pestering -- turntechGodhead [TG] \--


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Hey Jade.”

Jade screamed, stumbling backwards from her bureau. John was laughing outside her window, both hands gripping his stomach as his prankster’s gambit soared.  
“John?” Jade asked, hands over her ears as she stared in shocked confusion. “What!? How are you doing that?”

He flew in through her window. She stumbled backwards, letting loose a small yip. “Oh no! Oh no I really am crazy. You’re not really here. What happened to me?”  
John floated onto the floor, looking at her concerned. “No Jade it’s me! I’m sorry I scared you.”

She whimpered, looking at him like he was a ghost. “John is it really you? Or am I just seeing what I want to see?”  
“I’m really me,” John was starting to get genuinely concerned. Jade looked so scared. “Ok sorry I shouldn’t have just flown in. I guess I thought your memory might have come back now. I mean, you were the one most in the game, being on Prospit and all I figured you’d see that this is wrong. I mean…”

“Wait, you know about Prospit?”

“Yes, of course.”

Jade uncovered her ears, looking at him like he’d grown another head. “I have dog ears.”

“Well yes, you and your dog, um, anyway that’s normal for you. Don’t you remember? We played Sburb but we couldn’t win, so we tried to restart the game. Something happened and we ended up here.” 

Jade frowned at him, wondering just how far gone she was. But still, John seemed so real. She walked forward tentatively, reaching out and touching his hand with her fingertips. He cocked his head to the side, watching closely for signs of what she was feeling. Finally she just slumped forward into him, letting him pull her into a tight hug. “It’s okay Jade! Everything is going to be okay.”

“I don’t really understand,” she pulled back from him. “But if you’re offering an explanation for everything that has happened today I’m listening, because none of it makes sense.”

He scratched his head. “Well maybe I can jog your memory.”

“Okay,” she sniffed, sitting down in her pile of squiddles. She picked up a blue one, holding it between her hands and wishing she could burying her face in it.  
An on feeling sprung from within her. It coursed down her arms and into her stuffed animal, shocking her. She yipped and stood, watching transfixed as it suddenly grew in size. John grabbed her arm and pulled her back as it expanded, not stopping until it was the size of her bed. The blue squiddle gave her a vacant scare as her heart pounded in her chest.

“Woah,” John murmured. “That’s a big stuffed animal!”

“What… how… did I…?” Jade circled the fluffy toy, poking it placidly with her index finger. “Did I do that?”

John put his hands on his hips. “Yeah, and I don’t think it’s going to fit in our sylladex either.”

This was disappointing to Jade, who loved her new gigantic squiddle very much.

She recalled the sensation that had made it grow. How had she done that? It had felt familiar, she was sure at some point she had experienced the feeling before. “This is crazy, how could I have done that.”

“You’re witch of space powers I guess,” John surveyed the squiddle nervously. The thing was intimidating. “I control wind and you have power over space. That’s how I can kind of fly.”

The title sounded familiar. She was anxious to use the power again. How many giant squiddles would fit in her room? She turned to John. “Needless to say I think whatever explanation you have is probably the truth. I believe you. So, what can you tell me about Prospit?”

“Oh…” John sat down on the bed, raking his hand through his hair. “Well okay Jade, sit down and don’t make any more of those giant stuffed octopuses. I’ll start at the beginning.”

“Squiddles.”

“Semantics.”

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \-- began pestering -- tentacleTherapist [TT] \--

CG: TELL ME YOU REMEMBER ME.  
TT: My apologies, but I do not recall your chumhandle.   
CG: FIGURES. NOT THAT WE TALKED REALLY ANYWAYS.  
TT: How ill-fated.   
CG: YEAH, A FUCKING TRAGEDY. HAVE YOU TALKED TO YOUR FUCKASS FRIEND JOHN LATELY?  
TT: Not since early this morning. You’ve piqued my curiosity though. Why is it essential to discourse with him?  
CG: GOD DAMN IT ROSE, I DON’T HAVE TIME TO EXPLAIN SHIT TO YOU.   
TT: I would revel in erudition of ‘shit’ from you. I can tell you are busy frantically trying to commerce with my friend, therefor I will divulge his location in exchange for you complaisantly answering a few inquiries on my behalf.   
CG: OH FUCK NO, I CAN BARELY READ WHAT YOU TYPE. KANAYA ALWAYS DEALT WITH YOU.  
TT: Then I fear John’s whereabouts will be my personally and meticulously fortified secret, enigmatic consociate I don’t remember.  
CG: I FORGOT YOU WERE WORSE TO DEAL WITH THEN STRIDER. WHY ARE YOU ALL SO FUCKING DIFFICULT?  
TT: How is it you seem to possess privileged information of our group? I don’t remember you at all.  
CG: I WISH I DIDN’T. AND YOU DON’T REMEMBER BECAUSE ALL OF YOUR MEMORIES ARE ALTERED.  
TT: Are you proposing that our memories have been altered solely to expunge retention of you?  
CG: I’M NOT SUGGESTING SHIT! AND NO, ACCORDING TO THAT NOOKSTAIN JOHN YOUR WEAK, SOFT, AND PATHETIC HUMAN THINK PANS WERE REVERTED TO BEFORE YOU ENTERED THE GAME. HE SUGGESTED THAT HE DID NOT EVEN REMEMBER US TROLLING YOU FOUR THROUGHOUT YOUR LIVES.  
TT: Forgive me, but I simply wish to confirm my understanding. You and at least one additional non-human creature trolled me and my friends throughout our entire lives, when we chanced upon each other in a game, which subsequently resulted in our memories being restructured? Is that accurate?  
CG: I’M IMPRESSED WITH YOUR ABILITY TO ABSORB RELEVANT INFORMATION FROM MY ENDLESS STREAM OF INSULTS TO YOU AND YOURS. WELL DONE.  
TT: I try. Though, honestly this seems a bit difficult to swallow.   
CG: WELL AT THIS POINT IT’S HARD TO BLAME YOU. JUST TELL JOHN THAT HE HAS TO STOP JUMPING AROUND LIKE AN ASSHOLE AND CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY.  
TT: I will convey the message, mostly because I am interested if it will even mean anything to him.  
CG: I HAVE A HUGE FUCKING HEADACHE FROM THE COMBINATION OF THIS CONVERSATION AND THE ONE THAT I HAD WITH STRIDER. I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY.  
TT: Elated. May I view the pesterlog of your discussion with Dave and see what evidence I can get from it?

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \-- ceased pestering -- tentacleTherapist [TT] \--

TT: Is that a no?

Dave was staring down at his own face. His body was lying on the floor, covered in shockingly bright red blood. The body was bleeding from a deep wound in his abdomen. 

Dave’s conversation with Karkat earlier had managed to dislodge a fragment of his memory. He knew there were large chunks missing, but he also knew enough to know that he was not really in his apartment in Texas, and that his brother wasn’t really playing Xbox in the living room. He had attempted to immediately get in contact with his friends, but in the current time period he was in they were not online. He had attempted to shift backwards to a different point, but that had resulted in the body at his feet. He wondered if past Dave had freaked and killed the intruder wearing his face. 

It was hard to move away from the spot he was in. The sunglasses he wore at all times had slid off his counter self’s face, revealing open shocked eyes, staring lifelessly ahead. He was pale, but blood was still flowing out of his body. If he had been responsible for this wouldn’t he remember killing himself? Then someone else had killed him… his brother maybe? No, that didn’t make sense. His brother wouldn’t run him through without reason. But that would mean someone else had been in his apartment earlier today, and had been discovered by his time traveling self. Then had killed poor other Dave to cover his or her trail? This seemed farfetched. Or perhaps blinking into existence next to his brother had startled him. But then again his brother had ninja reflexes, and wouldn’t accidently stab his brother just from being startled…

In any case he wasn’t going to time travel backwards again and pile up the bodies. This one would be hard enough to explain to his weird alternate universe brother. He was just lucky he hadn’t made a fatal time line mistake earlier when he was skipping back in time like a broken fucking record.  
What was he supposed to do with the body? In the medium it wasn’t a thing, but here his brother might question his dead twin. Where was somewhere his brother never went?

After uncomfortably and carefully moving his own body into the laundry room he scrubbed the floor as quickly as possible. There, as long as his brother wasn’t suspicious of the one clean spot on the kitchen floor things would be fine. He looked at his clothes, glad they were clean. He didn’t know how he hadn’t gotten blood or bleach on them. Still, he was not complaining.

He retreated to his room, staring at pesterchum for a few minutes. Karkat was online but had blocked him. That guy really couldn’t take a joke. It was inconvenient though, since he couldn’t figure out why the troll was so desperately trying to get ahold of John or where he was. He had mentioned that the world they were in was unstable, and that they could potentially in some way make it more unstable, which would also jeopardize Karkat’s location. Had Skaia created this place, or had the scratch thrown them into a copy of their universe? It was difficult to ascertain, and he didn’t have Rose to bounce ideas off of yet. 

“Um… hi… Dave.”

Dave glanced over at the window. “Sup, Jade.”

Jade was floating, looking embarrassed as she hovered in his window. She made a helpless gesture at him while her dark hair swirled wildly. “Sorry, John insisted.”  
“Ah man, he didn’t look surprised at all did he!?” John lifted Jade into the window, and then flew himself up and in before releasing the wind he was holding. He crossed his arms and scowled at Dave. “I guess you got your memory back.”

Dave shrugged.

John’s scoured hair was in his face, but he still managed to look annoyed. “So are you future Dave? Is that how you knew?”

Dave merely shrugged again, opening his arms so Jade could run in for a hug. “I am not future Dave anymore. By the way Karkat is ticked at you.”

John had the grace to look embarrassed at that. “I tried to wait at home for him but he didn’t come online so I just went ahead and left. I was worried! I can’t just sit around at home. Besides this world isn’t as big as the real world, so it’s not like I’m traversing the globe. Our neighborhoods our only like ten miles in radius from our homes, and then it melts into the next one. By the way this is a lot more convenient than our real locations from each other.”

“It doesn’t hurt that you can fly either,” Jade pointed out.

“This is true.”

“Your manipulation of the wind and going over the borders is probably why Karkat’s fucking panties are twisted about you potentially un-stabilizing this place that we’re in,” Dave glanced at the door coldly, wondering if his alt-universe brother would barge in if he heard voices. “But who knows with that guy.”

“Well I was worried about you guys. After we had talked you seemed really freaked out, and so did Jade. I think Rose was a little too, but she’s hard to read.”  
“She said she was having visions, but she was starting to think it was just her mind playing tricks,” Jade confided. “Her power is a little less real world startling then ours, but then again Rose is smart enough to notice more subtle things then we are.” Jade touched her dog ears, rubbing the soft warm fur between her fingers. “Truth is I was starting to think I was going crazy. I mean really, really crazy.” 

“I thought I was stuck in that crappy movie Groundhog’s Day. I was pretty sure I’d be living the same fucking morning over and over with Bro’s thumbs-up and talking about your ghost Nana's letter forever.”

“Ha! Good movie.”

Dave groaned, glancing out the window. “Why is there a big fucking squid in my yard?”

“Because Jade wanted to carry it with us,” John shrugged. “Is Karkat online?” He glanced around Dave at his computer.

“It’s a squiddle!” Jade interjected. The boys ignored her though.

“He was, but he blocked me,” Dave shifted his weight. “He can’t take a joke.”

John stifled a laugh, sitting down at the computer. He logged out of Dave’s chumhandle and into his, where two messages from Karkat were waiting for him. The first one was the response to John’s original message, telling him to stay put and about the trouble he was having with the other trolls. This had John very worried, it seemed like Karkat was being hunted because of his so called friend. The other message had been sent very recently.

\-- carcinoGeneticist [CG] \-- began pestering --ectoBiologist EB] \--

CG: WELL YOU’VE DISSAPEARED AND I CAN’T GET YOUR FUCKING FRIENDS TO BE OF ANY GODDAMN HELP! SO LISTEN CLOSELY YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF LUSUS SHIT BECAUSE I HAVE TO LEAVE THIS LOCATION NOW. THE ONLY WAY TO GET US ALL OUT OF THESE WEIRD PSEUDO WORLDS IS PROBABLY TO GET BACK INTO THE FUCKING GAME.   
CG: IT’S FUCKING STUPID CONSIDERING THE PAIN WE WENT THROUGH TO GET OUT OF THE GODDAMN GAME!!!  
CG: BUT DEALING WITH THE FUCKED UP WORLD OF SGRUB IS BETTER THEN ALL OF US GETTING DESTROYED IN THESE FALSE UNIVERSES!!! THIS ALTERNIA’S STRUCTURE IS ALREADY DISTABILIZING, THE EDGES CRUMBLING INWARD.   
CG: I CAN’T GET TO ANY VERSION OF THE GAME, THEY ARE NOT ON THE COMPUTERS THAT SOLLUX SENT THE FILE TO. ARADIA IS TELLING ME THAT SHE DOESN’T HAVE THE GAME, AND SOLLUX’S HOUSE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET INTO UNLESS HE IS THERE. I AM GOING TO GO SEE IF HE IS HOME SO HE CAN KEEP HIS LUSUS FROM KILLING ME.   
CG: FUCK!!! GAMZEE’S LUSUS WILL BE HERE SOON SO I HAVE TO GO. IF YOU EVER GET DONE WAISTING TIME LIKE A FUCKING MORON!! YOU NEED TO TRY TO GET A VERSION OF THE GAME SO WE CAN OPEN UP THE GATEWAY TO SKAIA BEFORE WE ALL DIE!!! IF I GET THE GAME FIRST I WILL TRY TO START THE CHAIN. YOU BETTER HOPE I’M NOT TO FUCKING PISSED TO SAVE YOUR ASSES!

\-- carcinoGeneticist  [CG]  \-- ceased pestering --ectoBiologist  [EB] \--

\--ectoBiologist [EB] \-- began pestering -- carcinoGeneticist \--

EB: hey don’t worry karkat we are on it!  
EB: and you smell like.lksjdfl  
EB: fuck!  
EB: sorry that was dave.   
EB: anyway we’re going to hunt down a game, just pester jade if you get back online without dying.   
EB: she’s the only one of us who has a portable computer right now.  
EB: oh wait! i just remembered that i have a computer in my glasses! oh and dave too!  
EB: so just go ahead and pester any of us!  
EB: sorry i didn’t figure that out before…  
EB: fuck i wish i hadn’t told you that. don’t cuss at me too much.  
EB: actually just don’t even mention it.  
EB: i feel like right now you are about to have your head explode as you read this so i’m just going to go…

\--ectoBiologist  [EB] \-- ceased pestering -- carcinoGeneticist  \--

Karkat was too busy sneaking out of his morail’s house to be too angry at John Egbert’s ridiculous antics. Not that he wasn’t annoyed beyond all belief at his stupid human friend’s inability to complete even the most simplest of orders. Even the most remarkable leader in the universe could not direct that group of idiots to do anything constructed whatsoever. 

He had to get everyone back into the world of Skaia and the game. He wouldn’t need to take on Terezi, Eridan, or anyone of the trolls chasing him if he could just eject his friends into the game again. He could rescue Gamzee without even getting close to him. 

The edges of the strange universe were collapsing like pieces of glasses, tumbling into the white void that flickered on the edges of the false reality. His hiding spaces were getting smaller by the minute. The people all acted strangely ignorant of the holes in reality, everyone except the twelve of them that had been in the medium. Despite the dead trolls awareness of the situation everyone was being ridiculously unhelpful. Aradia and Nepeta had both hidden him for a while, but they could do nothing when he was forced to flee when the trolls Eridan had sent after him came hunting. God just, just fuck that guy.

He had seen Gamzee’s lusus coming from Gamzee’s window, charging along the shoreline in a beeline for Gamzee’s home. Karkat couldn’t scamper out of the hive fast enough. His lusus freaked Karkat out. 

Sollux’s house was not going to be easy to get to, but if anyone had managed to have a backup file of the game it would be Sollux. Not that Karkat would praise him like that directly. Still, if Aradia didn’t have the game then his only hope was Sollux. Well, there was John’s side but at this point fuck them. If he had to rely on John and his friends to save them he was going to jump off into the white void of nothing himself. It would be better than being tossed at Eridan’s webbed feet.

He slipped into the forest again, counting on the shadows and cluster of foliage to hide him and keep him from being seen by the hunter trolls. Also it kept their crazy sun from blinding him and burning his skin. He normally wouldn’t have risked being outside during the day but it was the safest way for him to travel. It restricted the hunter trolls even more, and they had to sleep. Plus he had the advantage. They were split up in the woods, making it easier for Karkat to fight and get away if they managed to confront him. 

All not applicable if he never got caught though, so he was doing his best to stay under the radar. He did manage to get a long way into the forest. The deeper he went the better, because the trolls would expect him to skim the parameter so he could stay by the groupings of hives. This is what he reasoned anyway. It was almost night time again when he stopped to rest, scurrying up a tree as far out of the way as he could get. He didn’t want the trolls to come across him on the forest floor.  
Karkat slept for two short hours when he was awoken by a small cold hand on his mouth. 

Rose knew her friends were coming to see her. She didn’t know how she knew, or how they would get to where she was, but in her mind she saw them there, with her. Her conversation with the mysterious troll had left her mind buzzing. She was unsure how much of his claim was valid, but she couldn’t deny the oddities that fit. For one thing the unknown chum had known several of their names. He was very angry, but she could also tell he was concerned. She had wanted to view the supposed conversation that he claimed to have shared with Dave, but unfortunately he was being inscrutable. Her friend had a way of popping in and out with varying degrees of comprehensibility. Of course his last message to her had been the most perplexing of all. His last statement about not stealing a game from a kid stood out. Her mysterious troll friend had also mentioned a game. Was it a trick from Dave, or was something else going on? The voices in her mind were urging her to believe in the story that was being spun, of a game and altered memories. It was becoming a lot harder to push the voices away as she saw more connections. 

She hadn’t left her room all day, though she could hear her mom periodically in the hallway, moving from room to room. She had spent a lot of time reading. Her sylladex had been full of a lot of mysterious things. Some of which she understood how it worked, and most of which just confused her. There were a number of books though. She’d assumed they were fantasy books depicting the strange lore of a mysterious alternate universe called Skaia. She wondered if she’d read about it before, the name sounding familiar to her mind. She read about the mechanics of a game, and about the creatures that lived or had once lived there. There were books about magic, and there were books about denizens and gods. It was while she was reading these tomes that her friends finally arrived. 

“No John, I’m not doing this,” Dave’s voice arrived moments before he did, hovering in the window with his cape billowing. Rose couldn’t suppress her surprise. She had not expected them to fly here.

“He’s a super hero!” John’s voice informed from somewhere under her second story window. 

“My heart is aflutter,” Rose smiled at seeing Dave’s angry expression. Whatever was going on she was glad to see them, and also know she wasn’t alone in losing her mind.

Jade and then finally John flew in too. All four of them were finally together. Rose hugged them all, and then pulled back. “So, how did you fly here? That’s innovative.”  
“It’s fucking stupid,” Dave informed her. “Did you get your memory back?”

John puffed out his cheeks while Rose shook her head. “I don’t believe I have the recollection that people anticipate me to.”

Jade bounced over to her for another hug, snuggling into her as Rose surveyed her friend’s odd attires. “I like your cape.”

“I know.”

“A mysterious individual on pesterchum contacted me and queried about my memory as well. He was also very interested in John’s whereabouts,” Rose gestured at her computer. “I told him I would tell you.”

“Ah, Karkat,” John sat on her bed, leaning back. There were several beads of sweat sliding down his pale face. Apparently flying had been more of a strain on him then it had first appeared. “When did he contact you?”

“Not long ago, approximately an hour,” Rose shrugged. “He isn’t online now, though even if he was I’m afraid he doesn’t aspire to speak with me further.”

Dave gave her a thumbs-up.

“It’s fine for now,” John leaned back, arm over his eyes as he breathed heavily. “First I think we should try to jog Rose’s memory like I did with Jade’s memory.”

Dave leaned against the wall while Jade sat next to John on the bed. Rose glanced out the window. “And the giant stuffed squiddle in my yard?”

“It’s a…! Oh yea, it’s a squiddle,” Jade beamed at her.

Karkat was awake immediately, his hand moving to his weapon then darting towards the space in front of him before he’d even registered that he recognized who it was. Not that it would have stopped him.

Vriska deftly caught his wrist, felling his attack. She kept the other hand over his mouth, a wicked smile lifting the corners of her lips. She waited an instant to see if he would try to attack more, then took the hand away and held her index finger to her lips, shushing him. 

He flipped her off.

She pointed down, showing the trolls exploring the area beneath him. Adrenaline had chased the last vestiges of sleep from his system. His eyes flicked up to Vriska, who responded by pointing off to their left, gesturing for him to follow. He wanted to tell her to fuck off, but he didn’t have many options. How had she found him?  
She was wearing her god tier outfit which sported a pair of blue fairy wings. Vriska and Aradia were the only ones to have achieved god tier. He knew that Aradia had woken up in her recupracoon in her outfit, so he guessed that Vriska had as well. She few swiftly through the trees, stopping a short distance away and gesturing for him to follow. He gave it fifty to fifty odds that she was leading him to his death. He jumped to the next tree as deftly as he could; trying not to look back as he expeditiously sped after her. She hovered over sturdy branches, every now and then hiding when a troll would glance skyward. She managed to lead him out of the red zone, hands on her hips as she waited for him to climb down from the treetops. They sought shelter in a grove where Karkat could finally question her. “So why are you helping me? Trying to get back at Terezi?”

“No, that is just an added bonus,” she smiled evilly. “I want to get us back to the game, and you’re going to help me.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everyone who has read my work. I haven't written in awhile and was insecure about it. It makes me really happy to think people enjoy my story. Next chapter soon I hope.

Chapter 4

“Why the fuck do you want to get back into the game?” Karkat crossed his arms, glaring darkly at the girl. Vriska was constantly plotting, and he was sure that he was going to come out on the short end of the stick. Vriska was more troll then any of them. “Here at least you’re alive. There is no guarantee that the game will continue to consider you alive outside of this odd fucking parallel space.”

She shrugged. “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

“You’re not exactly low on the class system here,” Karkat pointed out. “This place should seem perfect for you. Eridan’s perfect fucking utopian society.”

“No,” she shook her head. “Besides you can’t see what I see. This world is going to collapse in on itself. Even if everyone else is blind to it, I am not. Terezi thinks she’s protecting everyone, but we can’t stay here. Dying here or already dead in the game, I’m in the same situation. The game is the better option for you idiots left alive. Besides I was busy before we got pulled here.”

Karkat found the whole thing hard to believe. “I don’t need your help. I’ll do it myself.”

“Oh really, well I want to come with you.”

“I’m not going anywhere specific. I’m just running around in god damn circles to avoid the hunters.”

“We both know Sollux is the only one of us that might still have the game. Aradia is being a bitch and saying she doesn’t have it,” Vriska’s wings flapped rapidly at the mention of Aradia.

“Sollux isn’t going to give you the game,” Karkat sneered.

“That’s why I’m out in the fucking woods looking for your sorry ass,” Vriska was getting annoyed. “You aren’t getting to Sollux’s hive without my help, and you know it. And I can’t get that jerk to give me the game. We need each other Vantas.”

“No, fuck off.”

“Okay, fine. I’ll go get your little friends the hunters and bring them here, and then go kick Sollux’s ass.”

Karkat growled. He believed she would do what she said. He figured the only thing to do was to go along with her for now. “God fucking damn it. Fine, fuck it. Lead the way.”

She smiled sweetly. “There, see, we can work as a team when we put our minds to it.”

“So the scratch had an unanticipated side effect,” Rose’s memory had started to drift back. She was pacing the room, her mind buzzing as pieces started falling into place. “It was not a very problematic subterfuge to expose though. Wind from the outer world of Skaia was the sole prerequisite to bring John’s memory rushing back, and simply having our adventure dictated to us was sufficient to fill in the gaps. This realm is delicate and ill conceived. It is easy enough to shatter the illusion. Why would someone inconvenience themselves by making this place?”

“You think someone put us here?” John had recovered from his mental exhaustion and had started monitoring pesterchum. He’d put in a few of the other trolls known handles but so far he’d had no luck.

“It seems probable to me that this was a distraction,” Rose pointed out. “Such a haphazardly fabricated lie would not be expected to contain us indefinitely.”

“But who would want to do that?” Jade’s legs swung back and forth as she contemplated. “For that matter, who could do that?”

“Are you sure this isn’t just like a bonus level or something?” Dave asked Rose. “Like the game’s equivalent of a side quest or some shit.”

“Though I am inclined to regard your statement with skepticism I cannot rule it out conclusively without a more thorough investigation. The fact of the matter is that there is no proof of anything at this moment. It could be that this is the universe we were meant to create by beating the game, and that it is merely assembled of our own memories and nothing more. The scratch could have been seen as a form of cheating by the game, resulting in a poorly constructed prize. Like, if you’re not going to do it right then neither am I. As a consequence this game’s frog or whatever is dying fast, because it was not developed properly.”

“That’s an unfortunate thought,” John turned away from his post at the screen. “Does that mean our session is over and we can’t go back into the game and fix this?”  
Rose shrugged, a thought popping into her head but she didn’t say anything. She knew how to find another game, but the message from who she assumed was a doomed Dave from an alternate timeline had warned her from that path.

“Karkat suggested trying to get another copy of the game,” John mused, saying Rose’s thought process out loud. “Maybe if we order a new game or something, or find someone who has some copies, all of us can get back in the game.” 

“That doesn’t sound like a bad idea considering the source,” Jade bit her lip as she contemplated. “Could we really just go and buy Sburb?”

“No, in this substitute world I’m not even confident that the game existed,” Rose gestured to her calendar. “In real life I had the day the beta would arrive circled, as did John. Also none of our birthday presents arrived I assume. This just planted us on the day we entered the game, disregarding the intentions we had on the day, presuming that our ambiguous freshly rehabilitated thoughts would persuade us that we had merely overlooked it.”

John brought up the search engine on Rose’s computer to investigate her claims. “So it seems that the game exists, but we won’t be able to obtain a copy since everywhere appears to be sold out. It was an early release deal after all.”

“This world isn’t very big,” Jade stood to look at the web page John was skimming. “There has to be someone close by with a copy.”

Rose shifted her weight. “There is a way, but I don’t think procuring the game is going to be the optimal solution.”

“Why does it seem like a bad idea?” Dave asked. “Seems better than anything else we got going.”

“Because you told me not to,” she sighed.

“No I didn’t.”

Rose leaned over her computer and brought up her pesterlogs, showing them the one from Dave that he had sent at a different time. “See, you expressed for us not to steal the kid’s game or it would result in our demise.”

“What do I know,” Dave muttered, but he was staring at the text intently.

“If I’ve learned anything from the game, it’s to not mess up the timeline,” John mused. “Maybe we should try to think of something else. Dying sounds like the pits.”

Jade giggled, as Dave ruffled his hair. “How could taking a game from some kid result in all of us dying?”

“Maybe we won’t get there in time,” John guessed. “Then we get hit by the meteor too.”

“Wait, how were you saying that we could find out where they were?” Jade asked Rose.

“The lab next door,” Rose gestured vaguely in its direction. “When I was fleeing from the fires I came upon it through a tunnel in Jasper’s mausoleum.”

“Wait, a mausoleum for your fucking cat?”

“Settle down Dave, we can come back to that at a later date. Anyway the lab can inform us of the meteor impact points, which would advocate that the large meteors would be targeting a game holder.”

“Let’s go check it out!” John flew out of his chair towards the door.

Rose grabbed his arm. “Wait a minute John! First of all how do you reason my mother would respond to the presence of numerous unfamiliar persons in her home? She possesses a gun you know. And even if she did assume she had neglected to notice you in a drunken stupor I still don’t believe going down to the lab is even worth doing considering Dave told us we’d be creating a condemned timeline by following through with Karkat’s half-assed proposal anyway. We need to deliberate on other alternatives.”

“Let’s all pretend we understood her,” Dave suggested. “Besides, we have to do something. Karkat says this place is unstable. Sounds like bad news to me.”

Rose thought for a moment. The voices in her head were urging her to the lab. She saw flashes in her head of them in the lab’s rooms, looking at the monitors. She closed her eyes, trying to focus on them. She needed to figure out the best path for them to take. The only way out of this doomed plane and into the medium was to obtain a copy of the game. They had no way to see if there was a way to break the illusion or whatever it was they were in, so the only thing to do was to get Sburb and start over. If that was the only realistic option then it was the one they should pursue, while being wary of the action they would take that would cause Dave to feel like they were in enough danger to warn them away from what they were doing. She opened her eyes.

“Alright guys, I think you’re correct. Something informs me that this is the only approach. Let’s go to the lab and investigate.”

 

Eridan swept into the room, his presence tasting of anger. He paced back and forth, grinding his teeth as he composed himself. He finally stopped in front of Terezi, who had been waiting patiently for him to finish. “Where is Karkat?”

Terezi shrugged, though she couldn’t stop grinning at her foolish teammate. He made it so easy to not take him seriously as a leader, though she wouldn’t say that aloud. He still had command of most trolls, including the ones that would kill her at his word. 

Since the Alternia that they were in had only included the planet’s surface, and a much smaller portion at that, the place the adults had been fighting was not incorporated. The trolls were now under the rule of Eridan and Feferi, if Feferi were anywhere to be found. Eridan had not mentioned this, but when it was brought up he would quickly put an end to the discussion. Terezi had a few theories, but she wasn’t about to go looking for the missing queen. She had a feeling Feferi’s honesty and intelligence would be a lot harder to deal with then Eridan’s one-minded quest for a supreme kingdom. 

Karkat would come to her eventually. Gamzee was locked away, so she was sure of it. Gamzee didn’t even seem to mind, he just sat in the cell with his soda, laughing while he waited for whatever was to come. Even though Karkat was resisting this now he would see that this fluke in the design of things was best for all of them. They were all alive for starters, even Vriska, who she would not have to feel responsible for since she was fine, wherever she was. Terezi would wait for Karkat to come rescue Gamzee, than they would all overthrow Eridan and live here in a better world, one that was more like Dave and John’s world. She believed this would work. This Alternia would herald a change for all the trolls, and she just had to convince everyone to get on her side. After all they had been through they deserved this.  
“I can’t believe he’s managed to evade capture this long,” Eridan complained. “Has anyone even seen him since we got here?”

Terezi shook her head. “No one is admitting to seeing him, but your hunters claim to be tracking someone, and also almost everybody else is accounted for.” (Except Feferi, but she wasn’t going to mention that to him in this mood.)

“He should be here begging me for mercy, not running around and being an idiot,” Eridan growled. “He is taking a lot of my attention from more important matters.”

“Like what?” Terezi jeered. 

Eridan glared at her. “That’s none of your business.”

That’s what she thought.

“Tell Equius to widen the search area!” Eridan barked, storming out. “Sea to it that Karkat is apprehended immediately.”

“Yes sir,” Terezi responded, her amused laugh following him out into the hall.

 

Karkat couldn’t deny that having a scout who could fly was useful in finding his way to Sollux’s hive without running into any of Eridan’s zealous hunter trolls. Vriska was as good as her word, darting out and up to detect their location, than coming back to Karkat to lead him around or away from them. He was relieved he hadn’t had to fight any of them yet. He wasn’t sure he was looking forward to doing something like chopping an old neighbor in half, even if this was some sort of weird paradox space or whatever. 

They arrived at the hive only to find it was being guarded. Kanaya and Tavros were blocking the entrance. Tavros was standing upright in his mechanical legs, while Kanaya glowed softly next to him, her skin translucent as she peered silently into the darkness of the tree line where Vriska and Karkat crouched. Karkat gestured to Vriska, motioning for them to retreat further. She followed him back into a sheltered grove. “What’s going on? Why are they standing in front of Sollux’s hive?”  
“Maybe they reached the same conclusion we did and realized the game was the only way back to Skaia.”

“Maybe they’re trying to stop us from fucking reaching Sollux because they don’t want to go back,” Karkat countered, annoyed. “We don’t know what the hell they’re doing.”

“I get why Tavros would want to stay alive,” Vriska offered. “But Kanaya was already alive… sort of,” Vriska glared. “It doesn’t add up.”

“Maybe…” Karkat hissed sharply. “Maybe Sollux doesn’t want to go back.”

Vriska’s eyes widened. “Why?”

“He doesn’t want to leave because here his matesprit is alive.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Vriska’s wings flapped rapidly at the thought. Karkat resisted the urge to tell her to stop flapping around and leave a trail of bright blue candy dust everywhere.

“Even if Kanaya was alive in the veil she would still rather be here on Alternia. Here that douche Eridan didn’t destroy the fucking hope of our civilization. They don’t know the place is falling apart. Everyone is too busy being fucking ruled by fish breath!”

“How did you know?” Vriska questioned, eyeing her partner in crime. “About this place falling apart I mean. I thought I was the only one who noticed because of my eight fold vision. Even Terezi doesn’t seem to be picking up on it.”

“Because!” Karkat snapped. “Now shut the fuck up!”

Vriska snorted, tossing her hair. “Well what are we going to do now oh all-knowing and mighty leader?”

“We have to get Sollux to get us a copy of the game,” Karkat decided. “If Aradia doesn’t have it then Sollux is the only one who could get it. We’ll have to convince him, without beating his face in,” he warned, eyeing her back. “If he doesn’t have a saved copy from our alternate universe we’ll need him to use his computer skills to acquire it.”

“And how do we get passed the other two?”

“They’re not going to just attack us,” Karkat rubbed the back of his neck, feeling sore and tired as all fuck.

“Oh really, they won’t? Okay, that’s a good plan. Unless you know, they do attack us. Then what do we do?” Vriska asked coolly.

Karkat felt fairly confident that both of the trolls hanging outside of Sollux’s hive would listen to reason, and wouldn’t just attack him on sight. There was no reason to. Eridan could not have convinced them just because of his blood color that they should try to attack him, or for any other motivation either.

“They won’t attack, not before they hear what I have to say.”

“And if they do?” Vriska pressed. “I just want to know my guidelines, though I’m not going to let Kanaya slice me in half if it comes down to it.”

“If they attack, and refuse to believe us then… then we defend ourselves.”

 

The lab was colossal. Once they got out of the long tunnel leading to it from the cat mausoleum (Dave had a field day with that) they found themselves in a large open area filled with computers and machines that over half of which they didn’t know how to use. Dave wanted to stop and talk about the little girl’s stuff, and John wanted to nerd out about the ectobiology equipment, but Rose ushered them along. Boys were so easily distracted.

She led them to the area she had seen only once before. There was a giant screen with a map of the world that was shaded in different colors depending on the most imminent impact of a meteor, and the size of aforementioned meteor. She studied it while the other three goofed around, trying to figure out the most likely place for there to be a copy of the game. There on the screen though there was only one single spot that was highlighted. She tried to widen her search but it just resulted in a computer error. She was lucky the program was working at all within the rules defined in the limit of the realm they inhabited. 

“Dave, stop standing on John and get over here,” Rose called, pointing at the screen.

Dave rolled John over with his foot and walked over to Rose. John got up and joined Jade in going up to the monitor from where she had been playing with the little girl’s tea set along with a little black cat that had lived in the lab until the day Rose had entered the medium. It followed along after Jade, who apparently wasn’t exclusively a dog person. She seemed happy enough to be getting love from any fuzzy warm animal of certain cuteness levels.

The five of them surveyed the screen. Jade picked up the cat as she commented. “Is there only one meteor?”

“That would appear to be the case. I cannot get the controls to expand the area, because apparently this is the only plausible region for the computer to detect based on its previously set parameters, since everything is pinched together and not the way it was programmed to recognize the world.”

“Yes, those things you said,” Dave commented. “So pretty much that dude’s copy is the only one we can find?”

“That would be the essence of it,” Rose sighed. “And furthermore going to his residence is what in all likelihood compels you to caution us not to go to his residence. I don’t see any way to circumvent it. These stringent linear guidelines are causing me to subsequently deviate from my presumption that this was not manufactured by the game after all.”  
“So you think that because there is only one path that it might be just another level to the game?” John asked, looking at the screen dubiously. It didn’t feel right to him. Certainly doing something someone from the future told you not to do seemed counterproductive.

“This person probably has a copy of Sburb though,” Jade insisted. “We have to try to get it! This world isn’t going to last forever!”

“Says the women holding a cat,” Dave remarked.

Jade stuck her tongue out at him.

“So what now guys?” John looked at his friends. “Do we go for it, or what?”

Rose closed her eyes again. The best path for them seemed to be to go. The urgings inside her pressed for her to guide them there. “I think we are required to go, nevertheless we have to be very, very, very cautious okay?”

They all nodded in agreement.

 

Karkat walked out of the forest first. He had instructed Vriska to wait behind until he had talked things out with them, figuring she might put them on edge. Also in case things went bad and he needed her to bail him out, though mentally he figured that if he got to the point that he had to rely on her to save him that he might as well pray to Jegus because he would probably die right then and there. 

Even though he felt tense, trying to prepare himself for the worst, he instead got a much better reaction. Kanaya saw him break from the shadows of the forest and smiled, there was relief clear on her face. She ran over and hugged him, not hesitating for a moment. He wished he’d had the same faith in her as well. Still they were obviously keeping watch outside of Sollux’s hive. 

Tavros smiled almost shyly, sticking his lance in the dirt to hug Karkat too. Karkat sighed, relieved as he embraced his friend. He pulled back. “What are you two doing here?”

Kanaya waved at the hive. “We were waiting for you, and making sure that Eridan didn’t come here looking for Sollux or anyone else.”

“You’re protecting the game?” Karkat glanced behind him, gesturing for Vriska to come out. 

Tavros and Kanaya’s smiles disappeared as Vriska flew over, landing gracefully besides Karkat and placing an elbow on his shoulder. “Hey guys.”

They both frowned at Karkat who shrugged in response. “She says she wants to return us to the game, and also I couldn’t have gotten here without her help. For some reason Eridan has decided to hunt me like a fucking asshole. I swear when I get my hands on him I’m going to fucking kill that bastard.”

“And you trust her?” Tavros gestured at Vriska, who stopped smiling and glared at him. “I don’t know Karkat.”

“I’m not up to anything pupa,” Vriska teased. “I just want everything to go back to how it was before I woke up in my hive alive again. I had business going on the other side.”

Kanaya ignored them. “Sollux thought you’d come here. We’ll keep watch, you can go up.”

“Not you!” Tavros pointed at Vriska.

“You don’t have any right to talk to me like that,” Vriska snarled.

Karkat shook his head. “Just wait here Vriska. It doesn’t matter. I’ll be right back down.”

“Because I was so worried about seeing you again,” she gestured angrily at Tavros. “So just because he has a beef with me you’re going to rescind our deal?”

Karkat glowered at her. “I’m not rescinding shit! You wanted us back in the game, that’s what I’m doing. Just plant your ass while I go talk to Sollux.”

She flipped him off as he walked inside. He knew she was going to be nothing but trouble. Karkat wished he’d found a way to ditch her in the forest, but then again it would have taken him a lot longer to get here without her guidance. He really couldn’t see an alternative motive from her. If she wanted to turn him into Eridan she could have just knocked him out of the tree into the hunter’s waiting arms. He couldn’t blame Tavros and Kanaya for their chilly welcome though. Vriska had a way of making people hate her. Like killing them, and stringing them along, and some other stuff.

Sollux jogged down the steps of his hive as Karkat walked in the door, smiling relieved. “It ith about time.”

Karkat crossed his arms. “You have no idea the shit I went through to get here.”

Feferi jogged down the steps after Sollux, her eyes shimmering mischievously as she hugged him from behind. “Glub!”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to my partner in crime altowat for giving me helpful feedback and helping me keep the story coherent. Altowat has also been editing my story for me to have color for the pesterlogs and to format the story so it's easy to read. And of course thanks for all of you who have read my story, it means a lot to me :)

Chapter 5

Feferi spotted Karkat and her eyes lit up. Karkat glared at her in warning. “Hey Feferi, don’t even think about it.”  


She giggled, than ran at him. He threw up his arms in defense of her affectionate charge, only to be thrown backwards as she collided with him in a very Nepeta like way. In fact Karkat could almost swear he was having flashbacks to when he’d shown up at Nepeta’s cave for shelter, down to bonking his head on the ground with a troll female on top of him. “Ow! Goddamn it Feferi, not that I’m not happy to see you alive but that fucking hurt!”  


She kissed his cheek, unperturbed. He sat up, pushing her backwards as he went. “Damn it Sollux.”  
  
Sollux shrugged, but there was a wicked grin on his face as he waved them all upstairs. “Feferi leave Karkat alone and leth get thith tharted.”  
  
Karkat stood up, feeling bruised and tired. Did he have a target on him or something?  
  
Fefari scuttled up after Sollux, her voice trailing behind her. “I don’t sea what the big glubbin deal is. He loves my hugs!”  
  
“I wouldn’t mind a hug,” Karkat muttered. “It’s the fucking concussion I have a problem with.”  
  
Karkat watched Sollux’s giant biclops lusus uncertainly as they all filed upstairs to the higher level of Sollux’s hive, where there was a giant bee hive, filled with hundreds of bees. The hive dripped with liquid golden honey, which could not be eaten. Regardless Karkat heard his stomach rumble. God he’d even eat one of Gamzee’s fucking slime pies right now. He flinched nervously away from the bees. Sollux’s bees wouldn’t hurt him while Sollux was here to say he was okay, but he couldn’t help feeling anxious around them. Darn creepy things. Why couldn’t Sollux have normal pets?  
  
“So I take it you have a copy of the game?”  
  
Sollux made a rude sound in his throat. “I have THE game.”  
  
“It was on your computer this whole time?” Karkat groaned, annoyed he hadn’t just come here first.  
  
“No,” Sollux sat down at his hubtop and began typing furiously. “I have been thcouring this fucking univerthe for thith thupid game. Ever thince I woke up. Aradia doethn’t have it, no one doeth. Thomehow it wath erathed from my fileth too. Either there ith thomeone better than me who wiped it out, or more likely there can only be one here, in thith plath, for whatever reason.”  
  
“Only one? Why?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Sollux turned in his chair. “Ith impothible to thay.”  
  
Karkat frowned. “Well fuck.”  
  
Feferi was glancing out the window, watching what Karkat assumed was Vriska fighting with the others. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that we get back in the game right?”  
  
Karkat shied away from the thought that she’d go back to being dead. He wanted to ask so many questions, but he felt uncomfortable thinking what the answers could be. He glanced at Sollux, who was frowning over at Feferi. “Right…”

  


The house looked like every other house on the block. It was located closest to John’s area of their bizarre little biosphere, tucked into a diminutive neighborhood where all the homes matched. It was white, with a pale blue roof. It looked harmless against the darkening skyline. The four kids stood in front of it, glancing at each other unsure. John mussed his hair, glancing at his friends. “So, what, do we just knock on the door?”  


  


“Yes,” Dave said. “Hey man, we’re here for your motherfucking video game, hand it over because, you know, I have a sword.”  
  
“What, no Dave. I’m sure if we just explain the situation,” Jade cut in.  
  
“He or she will think that we are complete lunatics,” Rose interjected. “We don’t even know how well these falsified organisms function. Or for that matter if there is even an entity within that home. I have not seen much evidence of artificial intelligence in this place with our guardians as the sole exception.”  
  
“But what if there is someone in there! And he umm… or she… is just a kid with a game and we’re four scary people who have come to take their game,” Jade muttered apprehensively. She frowned at her friends, looking for moral guidance.  
  
“Man who cares, we’re all going to get hit by a meteor if we don’t do something. We’re just standing around like fucking dinosaurs waiting for our extinction. Sitting here all high and mighty like reptilian badasses, laughing at the pathetic mammals all holed up in their caves while we dominate the planet. Then while we’re grinning at each other like naive jackasses, bam, meteor.”  
  
“A disturbingly accurate depiction of our current situation,” Rose remarked at Dave’s monologue.  
  
“Well future Dave gave us a warning, so we should proceed with caution, and stuff,” John thought for a second. “Why don’t I fly around the house carefully? I can see if anything looks off, then when I get back we’ll decide whether or not to just go in nicely or demandingly.”  
  
Rose nodded. “That sounds like a good idea John.”  
  
“Let’s ask nicely!” Jade begged.  
  
Dave took out his sword. “I’m always nice.”  
  
John’s sweep of the house didn’t wield any new information. He peeked into windows only to find a simply furnished home. It was very clean, and didn’t look like someone lived in it, especially by a video game person. He didn’t see any people inside. There was a bedroom with a computer that had blue bedspread, maybe that was where the game was, though he couldn’t see the other side of the desk from the window. He floated back down to his friends. “Well, the house kind of looks unlived in. Like someone put furniture in but nothing else? I didn’t see any people in the windows.”  
  
“Hmm, this supports my theory that there may be no additional life forms here.”  
  
“Okay well I have an idea,” John pulled up the hood of his outfit, smiling at his friends comfortingly. “Let’s do all the stuff we talked about.”  
  
“All of it?” Jade glanced nervously at Dave’s sword, images of small children and working single mothers flashing through her mind.  
Dave gave her a very serious thumbs-up.  
  
“Sure,” John gestured with his hands as he began to explain. “Jade will knock on the door to try to explain that we need the game. She can even offer to spend however much money to buy it from them. Rose will be with her for backup, in case they’re hostile. Also she could probably best explain it. I’ll fly up to the upper window and sneak into the bedroom. If I can find the game I can just…” John looked embarrassed. “Well since this is an emergency I could steal it.”  
  
Dave put an arm around John’s shoulder. “Dude, we gotta do what we gotta do. Shit is real man.”  
  
John shoved him aside playfully. “Whatever, I know that!” He glanced at Jade. “It just seems kind of mean to steal someone’s game. If someone had stolen Sburb from me I don’t think I would have understood no matter what.”  
  
Rose smiled coyly. “If someone had pilfered the game from you then they would’ve played the game and demolished the world, us along with it.”  
  
“It’s weird to think we would be destroying this place,” John sighed. “Like my fake real dad.”  
  
They were all silent a moment at that.  
  
“Anyway,” John coughed. “If that doesn’t work then we can use Dave’s plan as a last resort.”  
  
“As usual I’ll have to come in at the last second and save your asses,” Dave shifted his sword to his shoulders with a weighty sigh. “It’s tough to be the fucking hero all the god damn time, but dammit, if not me, then who? Certainly those troll fuckers aren’t going to save us. Karkat would laugh maniacally at us as we were fucking obliterated. Speaking of which have we discussed whether we’re saving the trolls after this? Cause I have some opinions.”  
  
“One thing at a time,” Rose hooked Jade’s arm and led her towards the front door, reassuring her as they walked away.  
  
Dave turned to John. “Seriously, do we have to?”  
  
John just grinned and flew off, leaving Dave alone to wander out of sight. Dave looked up at the sky that looked just like the sky he’d always known. “Man our lives are so fucked up right now.”  
  
Rose waited for John to fly out of sight around the side of the house before nodding for Jade to knock. Jade rapped on the door hard three times, than she put her hands to her mouth. “Oh no! Rose I have dog ears!”  
  
Rose smirked. “I have thought of that. Do not feel uneasy about it Jade. We’ll just say they’re toys. Just don’t move them.”  
  
Jade concentrated very hard on not moving them. Rose watched her ear twitch with the effort, becoming slightly nervous. Certainly this should be the least of their problems right now?  
  
Several moments passed with no answer. Jade knocked again, this time with all her might. Rose looked at the deserted street. She didn’t see any movement. No birds, squirrels, bugs, Strider, or any person at all. Making a decisions she swung the door open, not surprised to find it unlocked. Jade yipped in alarm, crying foul as Rose strode inside.  
  
As soon as she stepped in the door she collapsed to her knees. The darkness pressed in on her, clawing at her mind, screaming into her subconscious. The voices whispered sweet nothings, taunting her. They reveled in their victory. They were so pleased to have had her finally hear their voices once again. Rose grabbed her head, the pain of them inside her mind unbearable. Her voice choked as she tried to vocalize her pain, coming out as a strangled gasp. Jade rushed to help her, but tentacles erupted from the shadows of the house, grabbing her waist and throwing her into the far wall.

Karkat leaned over Sollux’s shoulder as he decoded the file he’d made to secure the game. Karkat admitted in his head that only Sollux would be able to get to it if Sollux was the one to hide it. “Why didn’t you just run the game before fuckass? Then it wouldn’t matter where I was you could have just started pulling us in. And then I might not have had to run around and be hunted by that fool Eridan.”  


Feferi glanced away from the window at Eridan’s name, cringing. She walked over and kneeled by Sollux, placing her chin on his knee. He began typing one handed so he could massage the back of her head comfortingly. “I didn’t do anything earlier becauthe Eridan hath been trying to find the game to dethtroy it. He doethn’t want to go back to being dead. He’th got a pretty good deal here.”  
  
“Feferi is more the rightful ruler,” Karkat pointed out. Fefari buried her head in Sollux’s shirt, earning Karkat a glare from Sollux. Karkat glared back, confused. He crossed his arms for good measure. “What?”  
  
“God you’re thuch an inthenthitive athhole,” Sollux muttered, turning back to his computer. “Don’t forget what Eridan did.”  
  
Karkat hadn’t, but he didn’t see what that had to do with it. Couldn’t Feferi just throw Eridan in prison or something? “Okay, fine. So will you quit dodging around and being a good matesprit and just tell me what the hell is going on? I’ve had two fucking hours of sleep and have been running around for my life, I haven’t eaten, and to top it all I’ve had to spend the better part of the day with Vriska. I am too god damn exhausted to try and piece this shit together.”  
  
Solllux was quiet so long Karkat thought he was going to ignore him, which made him want to punch him. He finally spoke though. “Eridan, of course, wanths to live here. He doethn’t care about returning to the game or thaving our fucking thivilization. Even though thith plaths not real and going to fall apart. He’th a glubbing idiot. When I woke up the firth time thomeone wath on my computer. I believe they were looking for the game. I didn’t thee who it wath, but Eridan hath thent people here athking me to locate the game. That ith when Kanaya and Tavroth came to help me protect it. Without the game we are all dead. Ath for why I waited for you, I waited for you becauth I love you.”  
  
“Fuck you.”  
  
Sollux turned the chair around. “Look, Aradia ith conthentating on the dream bubbleth, and Nepeta won’t help becauthe of Equiuth. Terezi ith in denial or whatever, and I don’t trust Vriska. You know that thith ithn’t real and that we need to get out of here before Eridan kills us or thith plath doeth.”  
  
“Well how long before the game is ready? How are we going to do this?” Karkat’s fingers itched to access his strife specibus. He felt shaky and on edge, his exhaustion making his mind feel like it was dull and heavy, and his body tense.  
  
  
“We need more than one computer, and to thart pulling people in,” Sollux looked over his shoulder at Karkat. “We thould thart with the trollth we know will be alive in the game. Then pull in the otherth. I’d altho like to thee if we can pull in more than one perthon at a time by having them be cloth to eath other.”  
“Well let’s get fucking started al…” Karkat felt a sharp pain in the back of his neck. The room started to tilt sideways, his vision blurring at the edges as it finally halted. He heard a dull ringing as Vriska walked over to Sollux and Feferi. Sollux had thrown Feferi aside and was about to use his psionic power on her when she struck. Where were Kanaya and Tavros? Karkat couldn’t make his body move. He could only watch helplessly as Vriska destroyed the computer. It was gone. The only chance they had to get out of here before the crumbling false world collapsed. Vriska smiled sweetly over her shoulder at who Karkat assumed was Feferi. He felt empty as his vision darkened. There wasn’t much point in continuing to fight anymore anyway. He and all his friends were probably going to die, so he might as well just let go. Karkat let his fatigue win and blacked out.

Feferi was not afraid that Vriska would cull her, and she was also unafraid of culling Vriska. She wasn’t afraid because she was already dead. She didn’t know if the other trolls that were dead felt it like she did, but the illusion of life was not there. She thought that Aradia might have felt it too, because Aradia was more interested in her other worldly duties then the prison their souls had been set in. Eridan might as well, which would explain his desperate need to immerse himself in this place. Vriska most definitely felt dead. She was sure of it as she stood across from her and destroyed their chances to escape. Vriska’s smile was tinted with desperation as she stood over their friend’s unconscious bodies.  
  
“Even if we can stay here,” Feferi whispered. “They can’t.”  
  
Vriska’s eyes narrowed. “I know.” She was smiling far too widely as she took a menacing step in Feferi’s direction. 

Terezi strode purposefully down the hall of the prison where Eridan had set up shop. It was next to where his hive had been relocated along the sea. The strange mishmash of hives all sewn together like an awkward quilt was annoying, because nothing was where it was supposed to be. It was a miniature version of the planet they’d once inhabited. Being next to the ocean all the time had presented some interesting new taste and smells. The salty air had excited Terezi at first, but now it was a taste in her mouth constantly, one she’d trade much to get rid of.  
  


Karkat was much more skilled at dodging the authorities then she’d anticipated. Her anger was a bitter taste in her throat as she made her way to the office of the troll Eridan had placed in charge of the hunters. The plan she’d formulated was completely ineffective with Karkat scurrying around on the planet’s surface doing who knows what. The amount of trouble he caused her without even trying was staggering. All he had to do was either get captured or attempt a rescue, but no, the idiot had instead decided to act like a hoofbeast that had escaped its pen. Bouncing around and running in circles. She should have just seen to the matter herself, but she didn’t trust anyone to keep Gamzee occupied and guarded but her. She had to be three steps ahead of Karkat. It wouldn’t do any good for him to actually manage to free his morail before Terezi had the opportunity to explain things properly to him. Why did everyone have to make her plan so unnecessarily complicated?  
  
She barged through the double doors, throwing them open as she marched inside. “Hey, Equius!”  
  
Equius looked up from the map he was studying surprised. “Terezi?”  
  
She swung her cane, the tip of the dragon imbedding itself into the prison’s location on the map, putting a hole in the paper. Equius stood angrily. “What is your problem?!”  
  
“Your incompetence nitwit,” she jabbed a finger into his well-toned chest. “I am tired of waiting around all day for you to produce results. If this were my case I would have already closed it. I am much more qualified to handle this then you are, but I am needed here. This is your jurisdiction, but I can’t help but question your commitment to following Eridan’s orders. I am tired of waiting around all day and not having results!”  
  
Equius ground his teeth, knowing that even slapping her hand away could break it. Instead he hovered closely over her small frame, his voice low. “Whatever your point is, you better hurry up and make it Terezi.”  
  
She back up while pinching the ridge of her nose in an attempt to not smell the sweat that was always prominent on Equius’s body. “My point is that you’re wasting too many resources on not catching Karkat, and also, it’s taking way too long. You should have had him in custody yesterday. I don’t know what the problem is.”  
“It’s being taken care of. What exactly are you doing?”  
  
“I’m keeping Gamzee from eating your face!”  
  
The corner of Equius’s eye twitched. “I have someone on the case that is guaranteed to handle this situation. Now if you’ll excuse me I have other things more important than obtaining your matesprit for you.”  
  
Terezi made a face at him. “Okay, first of all, we’re not matesprit. Karkat couldn’t weasel his way into one of my quadrants if he tried. Secondly, these orders are Eridan’s, not mine. Thirdly, who is this someone and why aren’t you handling this personally?”  
  
He gave her a rude look and went back to his map, glancing annoyed at the hole in it. “I am mapping this new Alternia. It is important that we have a lay of the land. It is more important than throwing our friend in prison in my opinion.”  
  
Terezi’s anger died a little. She looked at Equius surprised. “Wait, do you still feel loyalty to Karkat?”  
  
Equius looked at her annoyed. “Not that I believe you don’t, but no, I don’t.”  
  
Terezi blinked, listening to the lilt in his voice. Equius believed strongly in the class system, but he’d also had feelings for Aradia, who was low on that chart. She crossed her arms under her chest. “When am I going to see some results?”  
  
“Hello my dear,” Vriska strolled in, amused at Terezi’s immediate defensive stance. “I’m here with some results.”

John was opening and closing empty drawers, annoyed, when he heard Jade’s scream. He flew down the hall as fast as he could, stopping at the banister. Rose was kneeling on the floor, a dark aura hovering around her. John had assumed that her reaching of god tier had expunged the grim darkness from her. He was so shocked to see her internal struggle that he didn’t see Jade until she was flung from the wall she was pressed up against, crashing into the floor, the tentacle swinging her around like a doll. He leapt over the railing and hovered in front of the tentacle. He concentrated air in his hand as much as he could, letting the ball of energy loose at the tentacle as it picked Jade up again. As the ball impacted the appendage recoiled, dropping the unconscious witch to the floor. John could see that the tentacle was originating from the shadows cast on the walls, though they were far darker than any natural shadow.  


John glanced behind him at Rose, who appeared to be incapacitated. Her glowing white light power mingled with the dark aura that crawled along her, fighting for domination over her mind. Jade was out cold, and John worried his friend was hurt worse than it seemed. The monster took advantages of his momentary distraction, swiping at him wildly and tossing him into the corner. He collided with some picture frames, glass glittering down as pain shot through him.  
  
From where Dave was in the bushes he could see the front of the house. He watched Rose kneel on the ground, then Jade rushing to help her up. Suddenly Jade had disappeared from his vision. He stood, unsure. Had the residents invited them in? Would he freak them out running in to their house? A heartbeat passed, but it seemed like an eternity. His nerves were singing with tension. He wasn’t used to sitting, he wanted to run in and do something. He should have switched places with Rose.  
  
Jade flew past the door, her body crashing onto the floor. Dave stood and ran without thinking. The house shook as he entered in through the front door. A moan from his right told him where John had landed, his body meeting the wall having been what caused the house to shake. A long white limb was headed for John, trying to reach him without coming further from the shadows where it was hiding. Surprised Dave’s sword slashed out, but the flesh or skin of the creature was stiff. Still it was yielding to his blade. It recoiled as black goo dripped out. What was that!? Dave let out a breath. “John, are you with me?”  
  
“Yeah,” John floated up beside him, hammer in hand. “So, what’s the plan?”  
  
“I don’t know, let’s just cut the fucking thing off.”  
  
With a nod to each other John swerved right and Dave darted left. The creature swung its extremity at John again, intent on knocking him out of the game. John propelled himself aside, and then swung, smashing it between his hammer and the wall as hard as he could. Meanwhile Dave sliced the tip of it off, earning a strange high pitched scream as a reward. It made an attempt to hit him with the injured tentacle, but Dave was too fast, stabbing it as he flashed around to where John was.  
  
John hovered in the air, glancing at the windows curiously. He let loose a small wind to open the curtains, but the shadow that housed the creature stayed where it was. Darn, he’d been hoping that the light might have gotten rid of the shadow where the creature was hiding. The arm came at Dave again so John zipped over, hitting it hard at the base where it was sticking out of the shadows. He felt the strange shifting of internal liquids as his hammer smashed almost to the floor. Gross! Suddenly another tentacle shot out of the darkness, wrapping around John’s neck. He dropped his hammer to raise both hands to the appendage in an attempt to pull it off.  
  
Dave saw John was in trouble so he ran over and stuck his sword into the flesh of the new tentacle, the sound of the blade suctioning into the flesh of it was sickening. The creature pushed its tentacle into him and his blade, impaling itself further in his sword, but managing to knock him back so he was rolling across the floor. This separated him from his blade, which was still stuck inside of it. “Fuck!”  
  
John’s neck burned with pain as the monster tightened its grip. He needed to get Dave to cut him loose. He summoned the wind, using it to push Dave’s sword out of the tentacle and across the floor. In a second Dave was picking up his sword and slicing the tip holding John’s neck off. John fell to the ground, coughing as he gasped in air. His vision was blurry around the edges, his lungs on fire. The tentacle that John had smashed was not moving, but the other was racing towards him. He rolled to the side as Dave tried to hack at it near the base, right next to the shadows. Dave had barely nicked the tentacle though when the body of the thing suddenly burst forth with a loud shriek, launching Dave into the wall.  
  
Dave looked up at the thing that had come forward. It had sharp fangs and strange white eyes. The large body that slumped forward was all white. He’d seen it before, or something like it, when he’d gazed into the outer realm of Derse. He couldn’t believe it, the monster they’d been fighting was a horrorterror. It growled at them, trying to fight its way past John’s windy thing to grab him. John was using all his psionic power to hold it back. Two more tentacles were protruding from its large body. That was three tentacles to fight, and one smashed and not moving. Dave saw one of the ones left go for Jade’s unconscious form and forced his aching body to move. He deflected it, only to be thrown back from the recoil of his blade hitting a moving object.  
  
“Dave behind you!”  
  
Dave barely had time to roll out of the way of its next assault. They weren’t getting far with this at all. He nodded to John as thanks for the warning.  
  
Jade moaned as she regained consciousness. Her head and back hurt so badly! She wanted to stay lying down and go back to sleep, but she forced herself to stand up, seeing the monster in the room and her friends in trouble. What was going on!? She produced her rifle, attempting to fend the tentacles off that were forcing their way through John’s wind barrier. She forced her aim to remain steady, despite her quivering muscles, as Dave kept the tentacles from reaching her. She steadied her breath, trying to focus on her aim and not the pain in her body.  
  
John let the wind barrier go as the tentacles writhed in pain, the goo leaking out from Jade’s bullet wounds pooling on the brown carpet. John darted under the appendages for his hammer that he’d dropped when he’d been getting choked, grabbing it and rushing forward to the body of the horrorterror, still half way out of the shadows from when it had attacked Dave. He swung into its girth, the force causing the creature to double over. They needed to kill it and end this quickly. John had to retreat as it sought revenge though, trying to tackle him with its body. He flew backwards, waiting for another opening.  
  
“Sorry guys,” Rose’s voice was calm and steady behind them.  
  
They all turned simultaneously when they heard her, relieved to see she looked normal as she always did. The light inside her had seemed to push out the dark. Rose had not known that the voices she’d been hearing all along had been the horrorterrors. The darkness had tried to drag her back down. She was angry that they’d tricked her, and used her to lure her friends into a trap. She drew her needles. “Everyone stand back.”  
  
Her magic burst forth in a sharp line of white light, destroying the sheltering darkness the horrorterror had been using to retreat to. It screamed as a tentacle was cut off and left behind to wilt in the darkness. Rose smirked in satisfaction. It turned towards Rose and hissed, its remaining tentacles racing towards her. She was forced to drop one of the needles as one appendage wrapped itself tightly around her wrist. John was there the next second, trying to pry it off her as Dave deflected the other tentacle from reaching her. She tried to dig her nails into it to get it to let go of her, the pain making her cringe.  
  
Jade did her best to shoot it off Rose, crying out as the one remaining tentacle knocked her rifle aside. She smacked it away, rolling on the ground so she could dodge and retrieve her weapon. She looked up surprised as Dave sliced the offensive limb away. The horrorterror was charging them. Dave stood in front of Jade as she tried to slow it down. Black goo erupted in blossoms around its chest area with each bullet. She saw John trying to force it to the side with one hand using the wind, but it was determined to reach them. It was still holding Rose’s arm tightly with one tentacle, and John could see it was hurting her so he was doing his best to keep it from crushing her petite wrist. Before Dave and Jade knew it was on top of them. Jade screamed as Dave stabbed it, throwing all his weight behind the movement. The tentacle wrapped around him, shoving him back as the horrorterror screeched enraged.  
  
“Dave!” Jade tried to shoot it in the face, only to be smacked aside.  
  
Suddenly it stopped. Dave’s sword was protruding from its chest from behind. The tip was retracted and the creature slumped forward, a black pool forming underneath it. A new Dave stood behind it, covered in goo as he breathed heavily. “Hey guys, sup?”  
  
The Dave that had been thrown away by the tentacle wiped the limp appendage away, nodding to his future self. “Hey.”  
  
Current Dave helped Jade up as John and Rose walked over. Jade frowned at Rose’s wrist. “How bad is it?”  
  
She held it aloft. The skin was red and bruising, but she seemed to be able to move her fingers. “It is not broken, that is what is of the utmost importance I suppose.”  
  
“John,” Jade looked worried at him. “You’re back!”  
  
He grabbed his shoulder, feeling a sickening warm wetness on his fingers. Future Dave whirled him around. His shirt was purple near the shoulder, wet from blood. Jade gasped as Rose hissed in breath. John chuckled. “It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt that much.”  
  
Current Dave glanced at the corner John had been thrown into. Broken glass littered the floor from the picture frame that had been shattered under his weight. “Oh shit. I think he has glass in his shoulder.”  
  
“Fuck,” Future Dave chimed in.  
  
“Okay,” Rose took a breath. “Dave, go stabilize the time loop or whatever. Other Dave, you and Jade find the game. I’ll help John with his shoulder.”  
  
“Fine,” Dave sighed, grabbing his sword. “Off to save the fucking day.” He went back in time to kill the horrorterror, giving his Dave clone a high five as he went.  
  
“I miss him,” Dave stated, leading Jade up the stairs. “Guy had a certain appeal.”  
  
Jade snickered. “Really, you didn’t feel threatened by his coolness?”  
  
“What? Hell no,” Dave stated. “That guy is welcome back here anytime. That’s crazy about the horrorterrors though.”  
  
“Yeah, it’s crazy.”  
  
Rose shook her head, gingerly lifting John’s shirt over his head. Breath hissed between his teeth as his back was exposed. Rose pursed her lips. “Okay, this could be worse. Hold on I’m going to check this kitchen for first aid stuff.”  
  
She found nothing but a cloth on the stove and empty cupboards. The place seemed to have the illusion of a lived in house but not the odds and ends of the actual makings. It seemed that they had only taken a general pallet to work with. The picture frames were empty, but hung on the wall. The furniture was there, but everything was empty. It was strange. Rose was glad at least the water ran. She wet a towel with warm water and emptied the fruit bowl on the table, sitting John down in a chair. She took a breath. “Okay, just hold still I guess.”  
  
John laughed nervously. “Sure th… OW!”


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Dave knew this would doom him. Even if in an alternate timeline somewhere a version of him lived, the alpha Dave, that wouldn’t mean anything to him. He would still be doomed. He would still be dead.  
  
That was a hard thing to come to terms with.  
  
But staring down at his hands covered in the blood of his friends was motivation enough. Holding John’s stomach inside his skin, and watching the blood bubble up from Jade’s throat was motivation enough. No one talked about the horror of the doomed timelines. God he hoped he could make this a doomed timeline. His friends couldn’t be like this forever, lying on the ground, covered in blood, and dead. They were dead in front of his eyes.  
  
They had all come up to the door, expecting to talk to some kid about buying sburb. This weird world had been empty, completely devoid of anyone except their guardians. Rose had tracked the game from her mom’s lab, figuring that the meteor headed to the suburbs was for a player. It should have been easy. They had no reason to think that Rose would suddenly be attacked mentally, unable to help them in their fight. They had no way of knowing that as Jade rushed to help her a tentacle would shoot from the shadows and grab her, while another speared John through the stomach when he tried to defend the incapacitated Rose. Jade died trying to distract a tentacle from Dave, drawing it away from him when he was cornered. How could they have predicted that one moment they would all be there together finally, ready to return to the game, and then suddenly everything would be horribly wrong? The creature had managed to kill John and Jade, leaving Dave injured as it dragged Rose into the shadows before she could regain herself. He had watched the other two die, helpless to stop it.  
  
It was hard to breath, hard to think. He had to fix this. Somehow he had to change this outcome. He could make this better, he had to.  
  
He summoned his timetables, glancing at Jade and John’s mutilated forms. “Okay guys, it’s going to be okay. You know I’m all over this. I’m so on top of this I’ve circled the world so that now I’m under it, and that’s pretty good so stop looking at me like that.”  
  
John and Jade didn’t respond to his snarky-ness. He sighed. “My material is wasted on you. I have to go so just hang out here I guess.”  
He got nothing for that either.  
  
“I’ll take your silence as consent. I’ll just being going now to save you and doom us all. Maybe I’ll see you guys wherever dead doomed timeline people go,” Dave activated the timetables. Power warmed inside him as he felt the flow of time. He knew where he had to go.  
  
The heat zinged through his system. In a moment he was traveling through the timeline. He felt every moment of time, every second he could find if he wished. Dave had a specific moment to reach though, and in a single instant he appeared there.  
  
The Dave and Rose of that time hesitated at his appearance. He flew past them in their Derse pajamas, intent on his destination. He could see the confusion on their faces. If a Dave had ignored him after suddenly appearing along his trip to destroy the green sun he would be confused too. He didn’t want to think that he was creating this timeline that would all be destroyed. He felt strangely responsible for these parallel lives he was creating for the sake of ending. If he did nothing though they would all be dead shortly anyway, further down the timeline. He raced away from them, flying through the air as fast as he could. It was around here somewhere, he was sure of it.  
  
Fuck, fuck, fuck he was going to fucking die.  
  
He had to focus. He had to remember his friends. He didn’t even know where Rose was and John and Jade... it was so hard to think about. He forced the image of them into his head, to drive him forward. He would fix the alpha timeline somehow. All he needed was to find the meteor.  
  
There, it was just ahead. He could see the lap perched atop it. On the roof were the trolls he assumed. He didn’t recognize them, because they had never met in person, but he could guess. He wished he could stop and speak with Terezi, and fool around with Karkat. He wanted to, but he was now a doomed Dave. He had to complete his mission as fast as possible. Who knew how his presence was affecting this timelines events already. It could alter the outcome of the plan that had landed them in that mess in the first place.  
  
The trolls were staring at him confused, calling out his name as he landed by the staircase. There were two girls and three boys, but only two ran up to him. “What the fuck are you doing here you stupid asswipe?!”  
  
“Karkat?” Dave guessed.  
  
“Dave you smell soooo good,” the troll he assumed was Terezi took a long sniff of the air. “There is so much delicious cherry red fabric.”  
He grabbed Karkat’s shoulders. “Karkat I need you to take me to the computers!”  
  
Karkat responded by smacking away his arm. “Why the hell would I do that?! And why aren’t you completing your mission? I knew we couldn’t trust you worthless empty think panned humans to do anything right!”  
  
Dave gritted his teeth, holding back his comments. “There’s no time. This is the only way to save us so take me to them!”  
  
Terezi grabbed his wrists. “They’re this way Dave.”  
  
“What the hell Terezi!?” Karkat yelled as he turned to look at his friends for support. Terezi ignored him and led Dave inside. “What the actual fucking hell!? Yeah that’s fine, I don’t need an explanation!”  
  
Dave raced after her, his body was aching and his mind screaming for him to stop and process his grief. He couldn’t though, couldn’t accept it. There was no way he could.  
  
He focused thoughtlessly on his task. He just had to concentrate on following Terezi. He wanted to say a lot of things to her, but he didn’t want to have to stop and answer questions. He wasn’t surprised it was her that helped him. He had definitely become closest with Terezi over the course of the game, and she knew he wouldn’t do this without a reason.  
  
The meteor suddenly shook violently. Dave steadied Terezi as it quaked. “What was that Terezi?”  
  
She began moving him again. “I don’t know, I think something is wrong.”  
  
They reached the computer room through the transporter. Dave rushed to the computer as the meteor trembled again. “Terezi bring up Rose’s timeline for me, I have to get her a message!”  
  
She frowned at him, doing as he said as she talked. “Why not use your glasses to chat with her? Why bother coming here?”  
  
“I need to speak with her at a different time.”  
  
“You can’t speak with her after she went grimdark, her session is blacked out.”  
  
His heart beat rapidly in his chest. He knew that, but he was hoping these computers would take him to the alpha timeline, as it had seemed to do with the trolls. Even when John had died in the alternate timeline they had still been able to access his future in the alpha timeline, despite trying to alter it.  
  
He gently nudged her aside as she began to sniff curiously at the screen. He’d really love to know how all that worked but he couldn’t stop to ponder troll mechanics just yet. There, he could see it on the computer. Between the moment after she went grimdark and the moment before the scratch there was a thin sliver on the computer he could click on. It had to be them in the alternate world. It meant that whatever had put them there, it had happened before they had actually preformed the scratch and reset the game. He had to let Rose know not to steal the game, or they’d all die. He clicked on the chat as a chunk of rock fell from the ceiling. Shoot he had to hurry. He typed furiously, picturing Rose reading it in his head. She would read it and know how to save them, because she was Rose. It would all be fine if they didn’t go to that house. She wasn’t at the computer, and the sliver was so small he didn’t know if he could get to a different point. He decided to just leave the message on her pesterchum. He tried not to get too off topic, wanting her to know it was him and take the message seriously. As he entered the warning another chunk of ceiling fell, right onto the computer he was using. He cursed under his breath as Terezi dragged on his shoulder, trying to convince him to leave.  
  
That was it, he’d done it. He looked at Terezi, who was trying to yell at him over the rumblings of the lab collapsing. Now what? Wait to die?  
  
Terezi pulled him out of the room. He didn’t know how to be a doomed Dave. He wasn’t sure what to do but follow Terezi. There was no way to save this timeline, so what should he do? Try to live as long as possible? Without Jade, John, and Rose he felt empty. There was already a Dave here anyway. He wasn’t sure.  
  
They reached the roof, where the other trolls were looking at him expectantly. He didn’t know what to do. Karkat glared at him. “Excuse me great important human, but perhaps you’d care to enlighten the fucking masses.”  
  
“Sup?”  
  
The troll looked like his head was going to explode. Dave guessed he better explain. He might as well just hang out with the trolls until whatever was supposed to happen. He’d done all he could, and hopefully his actions had prevented the death of his friends. That’s all he could ask for in the end.

  


Karkat really hated politics. The massive amount of backstabbing and double talk going on was giving him a migraine. And holy fucking jegus was he hungry. He wasn’t surprised in the least to find that he was in a cell when he awoke. It was cold and dark, the only light from a single flickering torch hanging on the wall. Was this one of the dungeons from their flarping games? Or was Eridan just really into the midevil theme?  
  
He stared at the wall, waiting for what was to come. What did that prick Eridan even want? He was probably planning on killing him in a public spectacle to showcase his intolerance or someshit. Some friend he turned out to be. It was hard to fathom after all they’d endured together how his team had crumbled in what had seemed like minutes aboard the meteor. One minute the twelve of them had a very solid trolling planned, the next they had started slaughtering one another. It looked like the backstabbing hadn’t stopped when they’d exited the game. As soon as they were all back together here the one-upmanship had recommenced. They all thought they were doing what was best, either for themselves or for everyone he supposed.  
  
Unfortunately his death by Eridan’s hands or by the destruction of this dimensional plane was different means to the same inevitable end. Without the exit strategy that Sgrub offered he knew of no way to escape. The computer housing the game was destroyed, and with it his only chance to survive. If Sollux was alive could he retrieve it? If he’d backed up a copy or something on a server, or on the internet maybe, but then again he’d said only one copy could exist, and he had it. It must have been Vriska who had attempted originally to steal it from Sollux, and then having failed thought to bring Karkat to him so Sollux would reveal it to her. With the game on the screen she could easily just destroy its vessel, and overpower the trolls in the room. With Karkat sleep deprived and weak from being chased he didn’t have a chance, not that he was sure he could beat her on a good day.  
  
Could John and his friends even get to him if he didn’t have any copy of the game? He didn’t think so. He couldn’t have helped them either. Maybe they were alive, having been actually able to reach the game and use it. Or maybe he could get Aradia to go back in time and stop Vriska from destroying the game. He didn’t know if Aradia could beat her, but she had the best chance he could think of.  
  
Eridan walked into the room with his chin held high, Terezi and Vriska on either side of him. Karkat stayed leaning against the wall. He was too hungry to be angry, and Eridan just wasn’t worth it.  
  
His eyes followed them as they moved in front of his cell. Eridan frowned at him. “Where’s the righteous indignation we’ve all come to adore Karkat?”  
“What the fuck do you want?” Karkat replied indulgently.  
  
Eridan smiled. “I want you on my team of course!”  
  
Karkat curled his lips. “Why didn’t you just send me a letter then? Or does your brain only operate in such a way that you have to chase down and imprison your comrades?”  
  
The troll ruler shrugged, oddly not put off. “I know you want back in the game and away from Alternia.”  
  
“This isn’t Alternia you fucking fucktard!” Look at that, he could muster up a little resentment if he tried.  
  
Vriska rolled her eyes bored, as Eridan made a face at him. “It’s a new Alternia, a better Alternia. We can make it anything we want it to be.”  
  
“It’s falling apart, this illusion was never meant for us to fucking live here you imbecile! It’s going to crumble and drop us into an abyss emptier than the far reaches of the furthest ring, and we’re all going to die there, or exist in eternal nothingness. All because of your god damn selfish behavior. Why would you think it would be a good fucking idea to destroy Sgrub?”  
  
“So you can’t make us go back!” Eridan snapped. “You think I would want to go back to being dead versus ruling over our planet?”  
  
Karkat sighed. There was no way he could make Eridan understand. “Don’t you get it, this place won’t last.”  
  
“It will, I will make it last,” Eridan placed a hand on Terezi’s shoulder. “We’ve found a way to stabilize this place. So are you in or are you just going to sit in there and starve?”  
  
  
That got Karkat’s attention. He looked up at Terezi, who was frowning at him. Vriska’s smile was that weird too wide smile. He wondered if she snapped. Eridan smirked, feeling triumphant. He sneered. “No way fuckass.”  
  
“Don’t be an idiot,” Eridan hissed.  
  
“Karkat,” Terezi glanced at Eridan. “He really can stabilize this realm. Wouldn’t it be better to live here?”  
  
Karkat buried his head in his arms. “Just go away. I don’t believe whatever moronic plan you three have concocted in those empty think pans will actually work.”  
“Oh really?” Vriska leaned down so she was eyes level with him. “We have a way to live here forever and you’re not the tiniest bit interested?” She smiled so all her teeth showed wickedly. “I find that hard to believe.”  
  
“Well believe it!” Karkat snapped. “I’d rather fall into oblivion than endure Eridan ruling over all of us.”  
  
“Not that I can blame you for that,” Vriska stole a sideways glance at the fishy king. “But really you can’t imagine fighting in that game to be better than everyday Alternian life.”  
  
He frowned at her. “Pretty sure you’d get bored here. Isn’t that why you started playing the game in the first place?”  
She wrinkled her nose, “No.”  
“Let’s go you guys, Karkat obviously isn’t in the mood to play games with us,” Terezi shrugged off Eridan’s hand. “I need to get back to Gamzee, he’ll be out of faygo soon and we don’t need him slaughtering everybody in your precious kingdom.”  
Karkat looked up at Gamzee’s name. So his morail was safe after all, and hopefully staying sane enough to help in case they found a way out. As to what to do with the traitorous scourge sisters he had no clue. One thing was for sure, he wasn’t going to play their game. He would figure something else out, or die trying.  
  
Eridan nodded. “Perhaps after a while in here you’ll realize that letting someone else be the leader for a bit isn’t so bad. I can handle things better than you ever did.”  
  
Karkat didn’t say anything to that as they all filed up the stairs. The only thing they had managed to do with all their idiocy was to doom them all. Not to mention half starve him. Did they really have to leave without leaving him a grubbing bite to eat? I mean for fucks sake he didn’t remember the last time he’d had a something to eat.

Terezi waited until she was sure that Vriska and Eridan had gone to their meeting with Equius so she could slip back into Karkat’s cell room. Finally, finally she could talk to him! She rushed down the stairs and slid in front of his cell. After chasing him around all over the place he was finally sitting still long enough to… oh fuck. His cell was empty. God damn that troll!

She raced along the hallway, moving as fast as she could towards Gamzee’s cell. That stupid jerk! He wasn’t even going to give her a chance to explain herself? He couldn’t have sat still for five more seconds?! What was his problem?!  
  
Terezi came to a stop in front of Gamzee’s cell. The troll was staring at the wall like usual, just waiting. She let loose a sigh, there was still time. Karkat hadn’t managed to reach Gamzee’s cell yet, or had at least not managed to free the clown troll. Gamzee glanced at her with his half lidded eyes, smiling vaguely in her direction. He had shown no interest in anything since he’d woken up in his hive, and it had been easy to walk him into the cell. Since then a steady diet of faygo and slime pies had kept him quiet. Terezi had a feeling he was waiting for this whole other universe thing to be over so he could go back to what he was doing in the game. Whatever he’d had planned for them he was tight lipped and calm for now.  
  
She took a quick glance around the room. Sollux was gone from his cell too! He had been unconscious when he’d been brought in. Vriska said he’d tripped in her infuriating way. Feferi wasn’t in her cell either. How had they managed to escape so quickly? And why had they left Gamzee? Did they realize he wasn’t of any use right now, or did they just not have enough time? Damn that Karkat! She just wanted them all to overthrow Eridan and live in the patchwork Alternia that had been created, was that so much to ask? Did he really not know her well enough to figure out what she wanted? Of course she wasn’t loyal to Eridan of all people! He was such an idiot!  
  
“Fuck you KARKAT!” She yelled as loud as she could.

“Hey, how is your manly wound healing up?” Dave asked as he wandered downstairs, hands clenched into fists in his pockets. There were several shards of glass covered in blood clearly visible in the bowl next to Rose.  
  
John was hanging his head with his hands clasped. He chuckled lightly at Dave’s comment, but there wasn’t too much feeling behind it. “Girl’s love scars right?”  
“Oh fuck yes. Bitches fall over themselves for a man with battle wounds. They see a scar and it’s all over man, you’ll have to beat them off with sticks. Seriously they’ll be knocking on your door with desperate abandon. You won’t believe the action you’re going to be seeing John. It’s enough to make a man jealous. If you had a pair of sweet shades I’d be starting to sweat.”  
  
“That will be a sufficient quantity of babbling Dave. John is going to be in satisfactory condition soon enough,” Rose smirked. “His damage was minimal.”  
Dave cocked an eyebrow at her. “Are you’re referring to my amazing calm John the fuck down technique as ‘babbling’? If so you can stop right there because Dave Strider doesn’t babble.”  
  
“We can scrutinize that another time. For now where is Jade? I do not consider it to be astute to leave one of us unaccompanied right now.”  
“She’s upstairs with the thing we found. It’s not the game, but I think it is at the same time? I don’t know, she told me we should ask you,” Dave glanced at her concerned. “So about the horrorterror mess, are you okay?”  
  
John glanced up at that, glancing over his shoulder at her. “Oh yeah, you had us all worried there for a minute Rose.”  
  
“I apologize, had I suspected I would be assailed by the dark ones I would have given you a heads up,” Rose responded wryly. At their answering frowns she smiled softer. “I am alright. They took advantage of my lack of focus from the memory loss to trick me with their voices. I had mistaken their urgings for my powers.”  
Dave glowered. “It’s hard to figure.”  
  
“They did an excellent job of duplicating the sensation.”  
  
“Okay guys, if Rose says she has a handle on things I believe her. Let’s go check on Jade,” John stood uneasily. His shoulder felt tender as he replaced his shirt, but he gritted his teeth. He felt more like he was light headed than actually in pain. It was probably the adrenaline leaving his body, and anxiety, more than any actual damage from their fight. All of them were probably a little weary at this point.  
  
They filed upstairs to one of the central office rooms. John hadn’t been able to get a good look at it when he’d done his fly by. The desk was against one wall with an office chair, and in the corner by the window was a glittering white colored ball of light. It was coming from a hole in the wall, about as tall as they were and just as wide, emitting a strange light.  
  
Jade was leaning against the wall off to the side, arm around her aching ribs. Rose frowned to herself, wondering if Jade being knocked around had knocked something loose.  
  
John glanced at Rose, uncertain. “So, that thing isn’t going to start growing tentacles is it? I mean, I’m not exactly feeling up to round two just yet.”  
  
She walked forward, seemingly fascinated with it. “No, this dynamism cannot house one of the dark realms.”  
  
“So is it the game?” Jade asked. “We can’t find anything else in this house. The drawers are empty and so are the closets and cupboards. This has to be what is drawing the meteor. Doesn’t that make it Sburb?”  
  
“Not necessarily,” Rose pursed her lips. “But probably.”  
  
“So what should we do? I mean besides wait around and talk about this while a meteor makes us into pancakes,” Dave shifted his weight. The glowing white light reflected off his shades, annoying him. “Let’s just jump in. It’ll be fine.”  
  
Rose’s palm smacked to her forehead. “Naturally, let us all dive face first into the energy charged tear in reality. That is brilliant Strider.”  
  
“How would we test it?” John cut in.  
  
“Let’s go get alternate Bro. Tell him there’s a millionaire interested in buying puppets in there,” Dave offered, hooking his hands behind his head as he leaned against the wall.  
  
“I would theorize that they will not leave their zones,” Rose slowly raised her hand to the light, waving it just where she felt the energy start to heat up. “They were only meant to distract us by stalling us in our homes.”  
  
“The horrorterrors made this place right? That’s what being attacked by them means isn’t it?” Jade’s ears fell forward.  
  
“I believe that to be the case,” Rose conceded. “They wanted to obstruct us or keep us entirely from leaving the game, for whatever reason. Perhaps they always intended to leave the game with me, and not be left behind. But after I discarded the needles which gave me access to them, they were cut off.”  
  
“So they needed you to escape the effects,” John mused. “They weren’t planning on being left behind than. Did we manage to finish the scratch? Or did this happen before it?”  
  
“I am not totally certain, but it was prospectively beforehand. The horrorterrors took that opportunity to stop us,” Rose stood back. “I believe that this is a hole in the dimensional bubble. A ripped seam in what they’ve constructed. I am not one hundred percent positive, but I believe that this may be our escape back into the game, although in truth we may never have left it. This could just be a strange virtual plane that we’ve been trapped in within the medium.”  
  
“Whatever it is, let’s just get out of it!” John walked forward. “If Rose thinks this is the best way to go, than let’s jump.”  
  
She grimaced. “After what happened last time I wouldn’t. And besides, I’m not one hundred percent, just to reiterate.”  
  
Jade moved closer so she could place a comforting hand on Rose’s shoulder. “You know better now, they won’t be able to get back inside your mind.”  
  
“I still don’t know if this will work or just kill us.”  
  
Dave took her hand. “It will be fine. Let’s get out of here.”  
  
Jade took her other hand and John took Jade’s hand. Rose smiled. “Are we all together than?”  
  
“Of course we are!” John smiled, lifting them with his power. With a thought he propelled them through the opening. It engulfed them in the white light, swallowing them in it.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

  
Karkat grunted in pain as Jade pulled him along by his wrist. She guided him down the hallways her group inexplicably seemed capable of navigating.  
  
They’d scared him half to death, emerging from seeming non-existence in the dungeon. No sooner had his troll captors walked away than a pile of pajama clad humans had appearified on the stone floor. Karkat let out an unmanly sound of surprise as the humans untangled themselves, looking around confused. Jade had been the first to spot the imprisoned troll, leaping to her feet and stumbling over to the bars. “Karkat! What happened?”  
  
“Oh nothing Harley, I just thought I’d relax, take a load off by locking myself in a cell. I thought I could lose some weight by fucking starving myself while I was at it! Where the hell did you four come from!?” The troll stumbled to the edge of the cell, gripping the bars just above Jade’s hands.  
  
“Who did this to you?” John asked. He summoned a blade of air, slashing at the lock on Karkat’s cell.  
  
“This is all very remarkable,” Rose walked forward, eyes bright with excitement. “Am I correct in assuming we are on Alternia?”  
  
“If you can call it that, yes you are. Though it is more like a crazy fucking upside down version of it,” Karkat dashed to the stairs, glancing up than back at his newfound partners in crime. “Okay guys, no time for explanations. We need to get Sollux and get out fast, without being caught.”  
  
Dave moaned. “Let’s put him back in the cell.”  
  
John snickered while Rose rolled her eyes. “Follow me, I have a feeling it is this way.”  
  
Karkat opened his mouth to snap at Dave but his words were shoved back down his throat as Jade began dragging him along after Rose, who had bolted down a side hall. The boys followed her quickly, than Jade and Karkat bringing up the rear. He didn’t know how she knew what she was doing, but as he didn’t know how to find his way in let alone out he was forced to trust her. He’d been unconscious after all.  
  
He missed being unconscious.  
  
But still, his heart was beginning to race with excitement. Somehow John and his friends had managed to break free from wherever they were, and despite his fears they’d all made it out alright. All four of them were safe, and now he could concentrate on getting his friends out. Sollux had to have a method to retrieve the game, there must be a way. He hesitated to hope that there was still a possibility for them to survive, but the four humans falling right in front of him had to be a sign, if nothing else.  
  
Sollux couldn’t believe he’d let Vriska get the jump on him. From what he understood from the conversations he’d overheard she’d destroyed his computer as well. That was infuriating to think about even though Sollux was eighty percent sure this place wasn’t real. Still, you don’t go bashing on a guy’s computer, even if it’s a weird alternate conjured computer.  
  
He stared worried over at Feferi again. She was still out cold, having been brought in that way from her fight with Vriska. Sollux had managed to regain his consciousness on their way in, though there hadn’t been an opportunity to use that to his advantage. He had been able to take stock of his surroundings, so that was something. They’d tossed him in a cell and left him there. He sighed to himself. It figured that they had just needed to use him to unlock the game. What would they do if he tried to use his psionic powers to break out? Feferi and Gamzee were right there, but Karkat was nowhere to be seen. It was smart of Eridan not to keep them all together. Then it would have been a lot simpler to orchestrate an escape.  
  
Gamzee was completely unresponsive to attempts at communicating. Sollux had a thousand theories to why that was, but no way to confirm them. He just stared straight ahead with a strange smile, as if he knew something no one else did. Sollux turned away from him when he started feeling peculiar.  
  
“Sollux!”  
  
The troll looked up surprised to see four humans and Karkat rushing towards him. “What the hell?”  
  
“No time to explain, stand back!” Karkat yelled as John summoned another blade of wind. It sliced a nick in the lock, so John summoned another blade and knocked it down. He was started to sweat with the effort. It had been a long day for them all.  
  
Sollux opened the door and bolted to Feferi’s cell. “Can you open herth too?”  
  
John nodded, gesturing for him to move aside. It took him three swipes this time to slice through the lock. Rose frowned. “I presume not all twelve of you are sealed in cages.”  
  
“Just us lucky few,” Karkat snapped. He then spotted his morail.  
  
“Gamzee?!” He bolted over to his cell. “Gamzee?”  
  
Sollux hoisted Feferi onto his back. “He wouldn’t rethpond to me when I tried to talk to him earlier.”  
  
“Hey are you okay?” Karkat scratched his head, uncertain. “Gamzee?”  
  
Gamzee stared straight ahead, a strange but patient smile planted on his face. Karkat glanced confused at Sollux. “What the hell? Is he drugged or something?”  
  
“I don’t think tho,” Sollux shrugged so Feferi was hoisted higher up his back. “I believe he ith jutht waiting.”  
  
“What the fuck for?” Karkat looked doubtfully at the other people in the room, like one of them could provide an answer. They all looked confused though.  
  
“Look, it might be eathier thith way,” Sollux placed a hand on Karkat’s shoulder. “Gamzee ith hard to predict, he would jutht be a wild card. Leth leave him here for now and pull him in afterward.”  
  
Approaching footsteps made Karkat clench his teeth. “Fuck, fine, let’s just go.”  
  
They didn’t need to be told twice. They’d had to knock out two guards on their way to Sollux already. Rose led them from the room quickly, trying her best to follow her instincts. The horrorterror’s voices were loud here too, but she could shove them back now, and feel her Seer of Light power guiding her. She knew where they had to go, which way was the correct path to take. Maybe Jade’s space powers could have helped them know the paths of this strange lair, but she couldn’t identify the guards and the way to go. Rose didn’t know if they were going to the exit, but she knew that the best path for them to take was the way she was leading them.  
  
They heard Terezi’s shout of frustration. Guess the alarm was sounded. Karkat flinched at her ‘fuck you KARKAT’ that they were able to hear several yards away. Karkat ran faster.  
  
“Where the fuck are we going Lalonde?” Karkat panted. Days of running and little to no food were eventually going to demand his body shut down. He was running on empty here. John didn’t look much better, and Jade seemed to be running strange, like she was in pain. Rose took this all in, knowing she was pushing them and also knowing they had to be pushed.  
  
“Where we need to go,” she responded. “I am probably leading us to the game.”  
  
Karkat frowned dubiously at this, but didn’t feel like wasting his breath asking about it. She suddenly stopped, throwing her arm out to stop the group trailing her. Sollux took the opportunity to shift Feferi as Rose put fingers to her lips, signaling them to be quiet. Two troll guards ran past their hall, weapons held aloft. They were all tense until they passed, fingers hovering near their weapons. Rose kept them moving, pulling them deeper into the heart of the lair. Dave jogged next to her, his breath even  
  
“So Lalonde, am I correct in assuming the horrorterrors are here?”  
  
Karkat and Sollux both glanced up, listening warily. Rose spared Dave a sideways glance. “Yes Dave, the horrorterrors are undeniably present. My very rough reckoning of our recent state is that our worlds were subsequent to each other the entire time. There was a thin energy separating us, like a plaster wall divides rooms. The hole in that house that we supposed was the game was in actuality a tear in this poorly constructed reality.”  
  
“Interethting,” Sollux mused at her words.  
  
“What the hell did she just say?” Karkat muttered to John. John shrugged in response.  
  
Rose continued, unperturbed. “This is wholly hearsay of course. But I remain confident I am right. We have not been absent from the game at all, or so I believe. We are merely deferred in an assembled cage altered to bear a resemblance to our retentions, and that is why it is simply comprised of areas we are accustomed with. If there is another game being sensed here I think it will be the exit, as there is in all likelihood not another ‘room’ next door. If I have figured this accurately we should be free of this place, and can recommence the scratch.”  
  
“No, you’re wrong,” Sollux stated. “I didn’t find a hole in the wall, I found data. I found the game.”  
  
Rose wiped her brow, mind racing. “I concede I am surprised by this. Perhaps the exit really is in the formula of the Sburb game. The horrorterrors did not anticipate me to reach god tier and expel them from my psyche. This was very hastily put together to stall us until they figure out how to continue.”  
  
“Okay, seriously,” Karkat looked at the humans, clearly annoyed. “Can any of you translate that garbage?”  
  
They rounded a corner, only to come to a grinding halt. Three of the guards stood in front of them. The guards raised their weapons. “Stop right there!”  
  
One of them took in the humans. “What the hell are those?!”  
  
“Time to rumble,” Jade glanced at Rose. “I could just transport them away you know.”  
  
Rose frowned. “These could be corporeal organisms. I would advocate that we just knock them out. I do not want to risk them being actual living trolls that we send to the furthest ring.”  
  
Jade shrugged as the trolls advanced warily, leveling her gun. One of them glanced at the other. “Go report to Equius we found them!”  
  
He turned to move only to find Dave blocking his way. “Sorry, this is a private party.”  
  
“You’re outnumbered, better surrender,” John leveled his hammer.  
  
They gritted their sharp teeth, giving each other a glance before charging. One wielded a double bladed battleax, and the other two scimitar-like swords. Dave parried one of the scimitar wielding trolls, in his head wondering if the troll was moving this slow on purpose. His brother was so much faster. He had the guard disarmed in moments, his blade against the troll’s throat.  
  
Karkat moved forward, body shaking as he took a fighting stance. His sickles felt heavier than usual. He blocked an assault from one of the scimitar wielding trolls, gritting his teeth as the jolt traveled the length of his body. John was there the next moment, swinging his hammer into the troll’s stomach. It flew back into the wall, head cracking against the stone wall with a sickening thud. He slumped to the ground, unconscious.  
  
Rose meanwhile faced off with the ax-wielding guard. He hoisted his hefty weapon, swinging it at Rose with the intent of cutting her in half. Rose leapt backwards as Jade fired, the blast singeing her target’s hand. The guard yelped in pain, dropping his weapon in surprise. This was the opening Rose needed to hit him with an attack. This hit him full on in the chest, rolling him across the floor and into the wall.  
  
They all looked at Dave’s captive expectantly. He looked wildly between them, not speaking a word, or even daring to swallow for fear of slicing his own skin on Dave’s blade. A soft moan drew their focus behind them, to Feferi. She stirred, arms tightening around Sollux’s neck as she came to. Karkat grabbed her hand as Sollux lowered her to the ground. “Feferi, how do you feel?”  
  
She placed a hand to her head and grimaced. “I’m glubbin fine, I guess.”  
  
Sollux smiled, relieved. “You were unconthiouth for a long time.”  
  
“Vriska wanted me to be,” Feferi stood, blinking pupil-less eyes at them. They all stared but didn’t say anything about it. “She is such a glubbin jerk!”  
  
“You should all surrender now,” the frightened guard choked out. “You’ll never escape.”  
  
Feferi stood slowly, glaring at him. “And how exactly did Eridan have you turning on me!?”  
  
He gulped, taking in who he was talking to. “You are a traitor. You abandoned your duties.”  
  
She placed her hands on her hips, furious. “Excuse me!?”  
  
“Your lusus has been taken care of by Eridan since you disappeared,” he pointed out. “It’s because of him that we are all still here.”  
  
Feferi frowned. “So that is why. I don’t bereef that she is reelly my lusus, so I don’t think she has the same power.”  
  
Dave frowned. “That might be true. John flew in through my window and my fake brother didn’t know they were there. The replicas of people… and lusus, probably don’t have the same abilities as the real copies. It would make sense that the horrorterrors wouldn’t be able to duplicate the abilities of the people in our lives. Especially powerful people like my bro.”  
  
Rose rolled her eyes at that. “We ought to have an extensive conversation in the future about your hero worship.”  
  
Dave gave her a pointed stare as he knocked the confused guard out in one swift motion. “Let’s not, you don’t need to be poking around in my head with your psychiatrist technical babble.”  
  
She smirked. “We’ll see.”  
  
“John if she says the phrase ‘tell me about your childhood’ I’m out of here,” Dave sheathed his sword, placing a hand on John’s shoulder. “You’ll be the man of the group.”  
  
“I’m ready for this responsibility,” John said stalwartly.  
  
“Let’s get moving before I kill them both,” Karkat demanded, bumping Dave’s shoulder roughly as he passed him. John stopped Dave from retaliating as Rose motioned them forward.  
  
“We’ll be lucky if we don’t have the whole fucking plathe coming after uth becauthe of all your guyth fooling around,” Sollux muttered, annoyed.  
Feferi gave him a pitying smile.

  
Sollux caught Feferi up as best he could while they continued through fortress. They had to take care of two more guards before they made their way to a long empty hallway. They all glanced at each other worried. Karkat gave Rose a blunt look. “The way to escape is down the dark creepy hallway? Well geez, thanks Rose, so glad you were here to guide us back to the fucking dungeon!”

She rolled her eyes. “This is not a dungeon, or at least, I do not believe that this is. It is where I assume Eridan has found the exit.”

“Eridan?!” Sollux scoffed. “I barely managed to find it. I doubt that fuckath did.”

“Whatever is down there, it is where we must be,” Rose led the way down the hallway, eyes focused on the door in front of her. The rest of them followed suspiciously.

Suddenly a section of the fortress crumbled. They all jumped back towards the opposite wall, shocked. On the other side of the wall was the white shiny endless void that was present at the edge of this strange place. Dave put away his sword, which he’d drawn reflexively. “What the hell?”

“The world is crumbling,” Karkat murmured. “Soon this fake Alternia will be gone. And us along with it.”

“What do you mean?” John stared at it, resisting a childish urge to touch it.

“Fascinating,” Rose crooned with her eyes wide. “I would surmise this was happening on a more sluggish scale on our side of the wall.”

“What exactly is it?” Jade danced around to peer beyond Rose’s shoulder. “And should we move further away, just a thought?”

“Yes, that would be wise,” Rose resisted the urge to pet her dear friend. Now was not the time to think she was adorable. “The fabricated reality the horrorterrors made for us is breaking. They threw us into an empty plane and now we’re in peril of falling into it.”

“Fun, a time limit,” Dave quipped.

Feferi looked at the ground, her ears lowering. Sollux grabbed her hand. She looked up at Karkat. “You knew before anemone did, how is that?”

He stiffened. “That’s none of your business!”

Rose gave a sly smile. “I think I know.”

“Just fuck all of you!”

“Karkat is the Knight of Blood. He can feel the life forms of this planet and the veins of this realm as well,” a voice informed behind them. They whirled to see Kanaya, Tavros, Nepeta, and Aradia. Kanaya smiled. “He is very tuned to nature, and the beat of life.”

“No I am fucking not Kanaya.”

“How did you get here?” Sollux asked.

“Vriska left us lying on the floor outside of your hive. We sought reinforcements to mount a rescue attempt, and instead are left to follow a trail of bodies to this location.”

Dave leaned in to whisper to Rose. “Is she saying we’re not ninjas?” Rose’s lips curled into a smile.

“Yeah there are too many of us here to be subtle,” John frowned at Vriska’s name, but didn’t say anything.

“Luckily we are allies,” Kanaya placed a comforting hand on Karkat’s shoulder.

“We are glad to see you safe,” Rose smiled at Kanaya. She was happy to see her friend was alright. Kanaya had become very dear to her.

Nepeta nuzzled against Dave’s costume, purring. He leaned away from her. “Okay, how do I get her to stop?”

“Um… how did you find the humans?” Tavros inquired.

“They’ll be time for that later,” Rose turned back towards the door. “We need to keep moving.”

“Guys, seriously,” Dave pet Nepeta’s head awkwardly while she smiled, as she enjoyed the game.

“Might I inquire as to where we are moving?” Kanaya asked, falling into step beside Rose. They ignored Dave’s plight.

“Hopefully to the way out,” Jade responded.

Rose strode forward and grabbed both the handles of the door. She pushed it open slowly, waited a heartbeat, and then threw it open wide.

Eridan turned, annoyed. “I told you not to… jegus!” The ambitious troll had been going over Equius’s new maps when the door had burst open. His irritation quickly turned to surprise as humans and trolls filed into the large room. They all drew their weapons, spreading out as Eridan growled. “What is going on?”

The room was circular, and very large. No windows let in light so the only light came from the fixtures around the wall. Eridan’s large table was straight across from them and up a set of stairs, another on the other side mirroring them. Behind him was a giant tapestry of himself, riding his lusus. Dave tapped John’s shoulder and pointed to it, and got a chuckle in response. Rose’s eyes scanned the room, looking for what it was that led her here.

Before anyone could answer Eridan the rest of the missing trolls filed into the room save for Gamzee. Terezi, Vriska, and Equius appeared behind them, looking at the intruders stunned. Terezi gasped at seeing Karkat. “You asshole!”

Karkat bristled. “Pardon me for being taken hostage! I’m sorry to inconvenience your crazy evil fucking plan!”

“You have no idea,” Terezi took in the rest of the group. “Dave…”

Dave was frowning hard. “Sup?”

Vriska was observing John warily with pupiless eyes. Equius was staring at Nepeta. “Why are you here? I told you to stay in your hive.”

Nepeta wrinkled her nose and snuggled into Dave. “Well grabbing Karkitty and following Eridan around is a bad idea. I’m sorry but I think Sollux is right. Even if we could be here they can’t.”

Equius gave her a stern look, which she ignored. Dave mussed her head as a reward. Eridan strode down the steps, furious. He opened his mouth but Karkat cut him off. “Where is the game you nooksniffing asshole!?”

Eridan’s gaze flicked to Vriska’s. “I was assured it was destroyed.”

Sollux frowned. “Yeah, thankth for that fuckath.”

Eridan ignored him.

Rose wandered closer to the stairs, eyes on the tapestry. “It is here, it has been situated at this locality the entire stint has it not? That is your purpose for having stationed yourself here. To make certain no one would discover it.”

Eridan flinched, like he had been slapped. Dave was by the tapestry in a moment. “This?” His drew his sword in one liquid movement, cutting the innocent wall hanging down. Behind it was a swirling black and green vortex. In the center there was a bright and florescent emerald glow. Dave’s sunglasses reflected the light as he stared into it shocked. “What the hell?”

“What is that?” Feferi looked at Sollux.

“How can that be the game? I know I downloaded data thtructure”

“You transferred a fragment of this, and it is data, because the game is data. There had to be a link to the game, for the reason that there would constantly be a weakest point in the configuration,” Rose went to take a step forward, only to be stopped by Vriska, who moved bodily in front of her.

“Stop! We are dead, do you really want us all to go back to being dead!? Here we are alive,” she indicated the portal Dave stood in front of. “If you all leave then what happens? You think the dark ones are going to maintain this place without their precious vessel here?”

Rose jerked back away from her. “How do you know that?”

“I can see what this place is,” Vriska’s eyes flicked to John, then back to Rose. “My vision eightfold allows me to see a great many things others cannot. For example I can see the dark ones outside this realm. They are waiting for you to weaken.”

“They can’t keep this place up!” Karkat made a wild angry motion with his hands. “And maybe your spirit can stay here but the rest of us will die first before we have spirits to be trapped in the eternal-fucking-nothingness that this place is going to become!”

“They’ll keep it up,” Vriska countered. “As long as Rose is here, I am sure of it.”

“Did you not see the hole outside in the hall?!” Jade cried.

Terezi shook her head. “They’ll fix it.”

“Vriska, we’ll die,” John said, looking between the two groups. “Besides we can’t stay here even if it would last. We have to save our species. Sburb is the only way to do that. Otherwise everything was for nothing.”

“John,” Vriska frowned. “I’m dead. There is no saving me dumbass.”

John looked down. “Yeah, I figured that much out.”

“Enough of this,” Eridan crossed his arms. “Some time in cells will clear their heads.”

“Fuck that,” Dave said. “Rose we just have to walk into this?”

“Yes,” Rose responded, eyeing their adversaries circumspectly.

Terezi rushed to block Dave. She squared off with him in front of the portal. “No! You don’t understand Dave.”

He hesitated. “This seems like some fucked up reasoning on your part Terezi.”

She smiled. “Come on cool kid, you wouldn’t fight a blind girl.”

He certainly didn’t want to. “I don’t know if you count as blind.”

She smirked. “Think fast!”

He parlayed her sudden assault, uncomfortable. He didn’t want to hurt her, but also she was a skilled combatant. He didn’t want to be hurt either!

Jade saw Terezi attack and lifted her gun, only to have Karkat push it aside. “No! Wait Terezi is alive, and she’s not evil just really fucking stupid!” He raced to intervene but Eridan fired a shot that almost hit. He turned with a growl, weapons in hand. “I will FUCKING end you Eridan!”

Equius moved to intercede only to be blocked by several others. He gritted his teeth. Before he could make a move one way or the other the wall to their left crumbled, the white void claiming several blocks of stone. Suddenly a giant claw burst forth from the wall, knocking Aradia and Nepeta to the floor. Everyone rotated to face the new threat, stunned. From the portal tentacles came forth, swiping wildly at Dave and Terezi, splitting them up. Jade took aim. “Oh! Why is everything in this place making this so difficult to get out!?”

John flew up to help Dave but Vriska soared up to divert him. She let go of her dice, transforming from her god tier outfit into her Mindfang one. She now had a sword to help her fend off John. “Don’t fight me John. I have more power than you. All of the power.”

John saw Dave struggling against the tentacles and took a deep breath. Vriska was hopeful until he let it loose, blasting her against the wall. She groaned, kicking off the wall to fly back towards him. She took a swipe at him but her blade went straight through him as he dematerialized into air, appearing again behind her. She blocked his hammer, annoyed he was giving her trouble.

Meanwhile Eridan was trying to keep any of them from reaching the portal by firing shots at anyone that managed to inch too close. Most of them were distracted by the claw trying to cut them in half however, and were attempting to keep it from doing so. Jade jumped back and fired back at him when he hit Tavros in the shoulder. “Stupid fish breathe jerk!”

Equius moved to stop her but Nepeta jumped in the way, glaring. “Equius our friends need to escape!”

His glare could have cut through most grown trolls, but Nepeta stood her ground.

Rose tried to cut off the horrorterrors access like she’d done with the last one, but the tear in reality was not a portal they had created in the middle of the world, but a hole in the actual fabric. Rose would have to repair it, and she didn’t know how.

Kanaya’s chainsaw made a little headway into the claw, but it was not as yielding as the tentacles were. She was pushed back, skidding across the floor, much to her aggravation. Tavros didn’t make much progress with his lance either.

Equius attempted to move around his morail but Nepeta pounced in the direction he tried to move. He didn’t want to try to push her aside, because he didn’t want to break her shoulder. He scowled at her, frustrated. Sweat tripped down his forehead, despite his annoyed attempts to wipe it off. “Nepeta I insist you…”

He never finished the sentence. In a flash she jumped. He never imagined in a million years that she would attack him. She pushed him down the ground. He glanced up at her from the floor only to see her struck down by Gamzee.

“Nepeta!” He cried. She’d saved him. Where had Gamzee come from!? He’s been locked in his cage!

Gamzee had a strange vacant stare on his face as he tossed Nepeta’s limp form over his shoulder. Equius charged him, only to be struck down himself.

John was sweating, exhausted from fending of Vriska’s melee. He tried not to glance at his friends, fearing for their safety. Things were not going well. Vriska had more energy than him, and his shoulder was burning. Not to mention her higher level. His wind tricks were helping him stay in the game, but they were draining him fast. He had to find a way to put her out of commission. She was clever and quick though. She pushed him, forcing him back through the air. Keeping himself afloat was taking a large portion of his energy and focus as well. He landed and was glad to see her follow suit. It gave him no small amount of satisfaction to see her sweating too. It seemed he was having an effect. She didn’t give him much chance to breathe though, slicing in quick precise strokes at his center. He blocked each one, glad his hammer was not a simple wooden one. He pivoted, countering her attack and throwing her off balance. He pushed her with his power and then swung his hammer into her side. She went down and he didn’t wait to see if she would get up again.

He bolted upstairs to where Dave was trying to keep the tentacles back. He was guarding Terezi, who had an impressive head wound. He pointed to the vortex. “John stop him!”

Gamzee was carrying Nepeta and dragging Equius’s body toward the portal. He had a strange vacant smile on his face. He glanced at John who charged him, easily sidestepping his frontal attack. He twirled out of the way, using the momentum to toss Equius as he did. The troll landed in the vortex, disappearing into the familiar green light between the reaching tentacles. Someone cried out in surprise.

Dave sliced through one of the appendages and rushed to help Nepeta. Gamzee blocked his sword with a club, dripping with green tinted blood. Dave tried to move his blade to strike but Gamzee twisted his body so Dave moved around him, almost stabbing John as he advanced. John tried to blast Nepeta out of his arms but Gamzee just shifted her underneath, throwing a pie he had captchalogued at John’s face. Dave tried to attack again, but a tentacle caught him in the stomach, shoving him onto the floor and pinning him.

Terezi regained consciousness to see Gamzee throwing Nepeta into the vortex, where she disappeared. “No!”

She charged him but he was gone in a blur of motion. She whirled, searching for him. She tasted her own blood, and the thick smell of it was clouding her nose and mouth. Unexpectedly she was struck from behind, thrown down the stairs. She groaned as she tried to get up, annoyed the tentacles had hit her again. Karkat, because who else would be yelling ‘fuck’ over and over again under his breath, helped steady her. Also she believed she could make out that he was calling her an idiot in between those obscenities. What was she doing? She’d been ready to give up on the game to be here, where her friends were alive and they were all safe. It seemed a lot better option that watching the people she cared about be slaughtered trying to play a game they weren’t winning.

“Stupid fucking idiot,” Karkat put one of her arms around his shoulder, helping her get on her feet. “We can’t just give up. I mean fuck.”

“Where is Eridan?” She asked.

“Hopefully that asswipe is being clubbed to death by my once again homicidal morail. I might try to calm him down after he feeds Eridan’s dumb ass to the horrorterrors,” Karkat gave as an answer.

She laughed. “Yes Karkat, that is great. Let’s continue to let the murder troll loose on our dwindling group of friends. By the way is that your blood I smell?”

“No, it is one of the humans. They bled all over me. Shut the fuck up.”

Dave bolted upward as John knocked the tentacle aside, following him as John assaulted another arm. He sliced it as John’s hammer held it down, turning immediately to slice at another one. He pushed his hair back. “This is never ending.”

John nodded grimly. After this they were supposed to go play the game?! Fuck that.

“Honk.”

John turned to see the clown dragging Vriska. He felt a surge of fear through his body. “Let her go!”

Dave groaned. “This guy again.”

He followed John’s charge another time, only their double attack wasn’t quite so effective against the clown troll. He sidestepped John and smashed Dave in the head. He moved towards the portal with a single minded determination. John compressed air in his hands and targeted the clown, finally managing to land a hit. John ducked under a tentacle to try to do a follow up attack, but Gamzee was quick to recover. He almost had Vriska in the portal when Dave flashed in front of him. He back peddled as Dave took a swing, an amused smile on his face as the tip of the blade sliced across his chest. His eyes flickered up to look into Dave’s shades, his own eyes reflected back at him. Dave’s training was the only thing that kept him from being paralyzed at the look in the clown’s eyes. Gamzee bowed under John’s next attack, curving under the blade Dave tried to cut his arm off with. He tossed Vriska into the portal by her jacket, watching her disappear before he himself flashed away.

John stared into the vortex dumbfounded. Dave pushed him aside and deflected a tentacle. “God damn that bastard is fast. Don’t worry John, she was just unconscious. We were all going in there anyway.”

“Yeah but she didn’t want to, and I…” John hung his head. “She died. I didn’t even know. And now I won’t get to see her again.”

Dave placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry man.”

John nodded, shrugging. He took a breath. “Okay, I’m going to help the others. Keep that thing back so I can get the girls up here.”

Dave hefted his sword. That sounds good bro.”

Sollux watched as Gamzee dragged Vriska up the stairs at a leisurely pace. He was floating next to Aradia, trying to alter the area the claw was protruding from. He was seeing a disturbing pattern. He glanced down at Feferi, who was doing her best to increase the crack in the armor of the claw that Kanaya had made along with Tavros, both of them trying to pry it open as it tried to clobber them.

He lowered himself to the ground, pushing the claw away from Tavros and Feferi with his psionic powers. He could see the face of the creature from this angle, but he didn’t want to look at it closely for very long. He turned to check on Aradia only to be face to face with Eridan’s gun. He fired off a shot in time to deflect Eridan’s blast, but the recoil sent him spiraling. He caught himself before he hit the wall as Rose zapped Eridan’s shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon. This had him letting out a very ungentlemanly curse.

In a flash Gamzee had conked Eridan over the head, blood flying in a vicious pattern across the floor. Gamzee scooped him under his arm, deflecting Tavros’s charge and dodging Jade’s shots. He was back up by the vortex before they knew it.  
Sollux was sure now, Gamzee was re-collecting the dead. Tavros and Feferi were the only ones left. He was not leaving Feferi’s side.

Rose growled in frustration as they were unable to do anything to keep Gamzee from dragging Tavros off towards the portal. She was down to one needle as Eridan’s parting shot had fried her left shoulder. The horrorterrors were now screaming in her mind, desperate as more trolls exited into the game, despite the fact that those trolls were all dead in the game and all entered unwillingly. The horrorterrors kept trying to break through and apparently smash them to keep them from leaving, and they were being fought with an increasingly decreasing force.

Karkat was dragging Terezi up the stairs to help Dave while Aradia was freezing tentacles so Dave could lop them off. Unfortunately another horrorterror with tentacles had squeezed in next to the first one, with more tentacles.

Gamzee managed to get Tavros in without a problem, licking his blood from his fingers as he turned to finish his self-imposed project.

He was strolling down the stairs when Karkat moved in front of him. “Wait, Gamzee stop. Enough okay?”

Terezi was standing on her own, though her own blood was coating her face. She was rushing to help Dave, knowing she wasn’t up to calming Gamzee down right now.

Gamzee leered heavy lidded at Karkat. “Honk.”

“Can’t you turn some of that clown miracle crap or whatever on the actual bad guys?” Karkat gripped his sickles tightly, feeling unsure.

Not in a hurry at all Gamzee walked past Karkat, bumping his shoulder as he passed. Karkat didn’t know what to do. Everything was tense. He felt like his blood had turned to ice. He felt so weak and hungry. He turned as Gamzee reached the bottom of the stairs. “Gamzee, for fucks sake!”

Gamzee sauntered into the fray. He flash stepped around Kanaya’s angry chainsaw and headed towards Feferi and Sollux.

Feferi saw Gamzee coming as Sollux stood in front of her, glowing blue and red in his anger. She looked up at the vortex. “Sollux, I’m going into that thing.”  
  
He jerked around. “Feferi…”

She smiled. “We both knew that I would have to go back. We’re going in there anyway, and I would rather glubbing wade in myshell.”

Sollux grabbed her hands, feeling torn. He lifted them both with his psionic powers, darting over to the vortex. Gamzee watched them as they flew above his head, smiling as he turned. He had to break his stare to dodge the angry rainbow drinker intent on decapitation.

Feferi stared into the light of the green sun, emanating from within the vortex. She turned back to Sollux. “You know we’ll probably see each other in the game. Death doesn’t always have the same meaning there.”

He nodded. “We knew thith would happen, I jutht want you to know I want you to be happy and how muth I care for you.”

“Me too,” she kissed her matesprits cheek and turned around with a bounce. “Time to go. You have to come too you know.”

“I will, when the otherth get in thafely.” Sollux responded. She nodded and left.

He watched her enter before turning back to blast a tentacle away. They were almost all gone now. He took his place next to Aradia again, who gave him a sympathetic glance. He blocked a tentacle for Karkat, who finished it off. They were all covered in black goo.

They all turned, prepared for battle as Gamzee dragged himself up the stairs. He ignored them striding straight into the vortex between the horrorterrors. Karkat watched him go, feeling confused and conflicted by his morail’s actions.

Downstairs the girls managed to finish off the claw with the help of John. When it stopped moving he fell to the floor, knees giving out and hitting the ground with a thud. “Okay, god or not I need a break.”

Dave allowed himself to lean against a wall, flipping Karkat off when he made a snide comment about it. Karkat himself couldn’t see it from his position of lying on the floor, where he had fallen in exhaustion. Aradia was leaning fatigued against Sollux while Kanaya helped Rose towards the stairs. Jade took on the task of getting John up to the vortex. This was no easy task seeing as he was not in the mood to be moved.  
  
Eventually they all stood in front of it. John looked at Rose. “So what happened to the trolls that clown threw in? And what is going to happen to us when we go in there?”

“Well, that depends. The horrorterrors changed our retentions going in, so we might be placed precisely where they procured us from, with no memory of this diversion. That is the most likely conclusion. We could all be deposited in some other plane, with or without memories. We could all be killed by the power flux. Or we could all return to the game with memories of our detour. Also the green sun may or may not either have restorative properties or may make our injuries worse.”  
  
“I wish there had been one or two more favorable outcomes in that list,” Dave looked woefully at his goop covered sword. Would it be worse to wipe it on his cape?  
  
Kanaya smiled at Rose. “I would speculate that Rose is overemphasizing how prospective the additional possibilities are.”

Rose smirked. “Perhaps, however they are not impossible, more likely though we are about to be dropped where we left off. That is, performing the scratch with no recollection of this. But fortuitously the horrorterrors will be enfeebled, too fatigued to attempt anything like this again, or so I would wager.”

They all looked at each other. Jade sulked. “That doesn’t seem fair.”

“Maybe not,” John said. “But maybe there isn’t a lot I would want to remember.”

Dave sighed. “At least I won’t remember how tired I am. We are about to go from this into performing that game cheating world altering thing we were doing. That’s no small feat.”

Jade rubbed her sore ribs. “I wouldn’t mind the healing actually.”

“We will probably be in the state we were in when we were taken.”

“Well let’s go,” John stood shakily from where he had collapsed. “As long as we’re all together nothing else really matters right?”

“You’re such a fucking moron,” Karkat groaned. There wasn’t much feeling behind it though.

Terezi stared unsure into the void. “I guess back to the game, with no memory of having had hope to have left it. Not the worst option.”

Karkat grabbed her hand, squeezing it comfortingly. “It’ll be alright Terezi. There is still hope for us to endure and continue our species.” Terezi chortled in response.

Jade, Dave, Rose, and John all grabbed hands. Rose smiled. “At least we are together.”

Dave nodded his agreement. “We’ll kick the scratch’s ass, then Jack’s ass, and then any other asses that happen to be in our way.”

Jade giggled. “Eloquently put Dave!”

“I’m a fucking poet.”

Karkat strode forward with Terezi, Aradia, Kanaya, and Sollux. “Let’s get the fuck out of here before these nooksniffers make me barf.”

The trolls walked forward into the void. The four humans exchanged amused glances. Dave shook his head. “I told you we should have left them behind.”

The four friends strode forward together as well, into the soft green light. It wrapped them in its warmth.

THE END


End file.
